A Monumental 19th-century Achievement
Excerpt from the book 'Auguste Racinet's Le Costume historique'.
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The publication of Racinet's work triggered that of rival works, such as those of Weiss and Hottenroth, and the republication of earlier works such as those of Lacroix and Jacquemin. It also inspired a work of the very early 20th century, Roger-Milès' Comment discerner les styles du VIIIe au XIXe siècle (How to Discern Styles, From the 8th to the 19th Century), with two thousand line-engraving reproductions; this was a sort of abridgement of Racinet's work on civilian costume in France and paved the way for the work of the following generation, that of Maurice Maindron and Maurice Leloir.
These men were not, however, entirely uncritical of Racinet's efforts; they criticised him for having painted reproductions of documents that were, for the most part, line drawings. Consequently, in 1903, they planned the creation of a Dictionnaire du Costume du Moyen-Âge au XIXe siècle, conceived along Viollet-le-Duc lines; his was their presiding spirit. This was to be a general history of costume in five volumes, with historical notes and illustrations drawn after originals by the painter Maurice Leloir, to be completed by a dictionary that would include patterns. Leloir had illustrated editions of Molière and Alexandre Dumas, and was not satisfied with merely graphical evidence; he was determined to study the surviving costumes. In 1907, Maindron and Leloir, with the military painter Édouard Detaille, founded the Société de l'Histoire du Costume, whose goal was the creation of a costume museum. This goal was prefigured in an exhibition held in 1909 in the Louvre's pavillon de Marsan, a sort of avatar of the 1874 exhibition that Racinet had seen. But the deaths of first Maindron and then Detaille, followed by the outbreak of the First World War, delayed the projected dictionary, and Leloir's 17th and 18th-century volumes were published only in 1935-1939. The Dictionnaire du costume appeared posthumously in 1951; it was reprinted in 1992 and remains an authoritative source for costume history.
Racinet's work is, then, not only a documentary treasure-trove covering more than two thousand years of costume. From a historical perspective, as we have seen, it casts valuable light on the history of museums, the applied arts, and the changing notions of what constitutes a work of art. For the 21st-century reader, it further offers a chance to reconstruct ancient times, an exercise of memory and imagination that has its own charms. It is to just such a sedentary voyage through time and place that the reader is hereby invited.
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
The publication of Racinet's work triggered that of rival works, such as those of Weiss and Hottenroth, and the republication of earlier works such as those of Lacroix and Jacquemin. It also inspired a work of the very early 20th century, Roger-Milès' Comment discerner les styles du VIIIe au XIXe siècle (How to Discern Styles, From the 8th to the 19th Century), with two thousand line-engraving reproductions; this was a sort of abridgement of Racinet's work on civilian costume in France and paved the way for the work of the following generation, that of Maurice Maindron and Maurice Leloir.
These men were not, however, entirely uncritical of Racinet's efforts; they criticised him for having painted reproductions of documents that were, for the most part, line drawings. Consequently, in 1903, they planned the creation of a Dictionnaire du Costume du Moyen-Âge au XIXe siècle, conceived along Viollet-le-Duc lines; his was their presiding spirit. This was to be a general history of costume in five volumes, with historical notes and illustrations drawn after originals by the painter Maurice Leloir, to be completed by a dictionary that would include patterns. Leloir had illustrated editions of Molière and Alexandre Dumas, and was not satisfied with merely graphical evidence; he was determined to study the surviving costumes. In 1907, Maindron and Leloir, with the military painter Édouard Detaille, founded the Société de l'Histoire du Costume, whose goal was the creation of a costume museum. This goal was prefigured in an exhibition held in 1909 in the Louvre's pavillon de Marsan, a sort of avatar of the 1874 exhibition that Racinet had seen. But the deaths of first Maindron and then Detaille, followed by the outbreak of the First World War, delayed the projected dictionary, and Leloir's 17th and 18th-century volumes were published only in 1935-1939. The Dictionnaire du costume appeared posthumously in 1951; it was reprinted in 1992 and remains an authoritative source for costume history.
Racinet's work is, then, not only a documentary treasure-trove covering more than two thousand years of costume. From a historical perspective, as we have seen, it casts valuable light on the history of museums, the applied arts, and the changing notions of what constitutes a work of art. For the 21st-century reader, it further offers a chance to reconstruct ancient times, an exercise of memory and imagination that has its own charms. It is to just such a sedentary voyage through time and place that the reader is hereby invited.
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
Auguste Racinet, The Complete Costume History
Hardcover, 29 x 44 cm (11.4 x 17.3 in.), 636 pages
$ 200.00
$ 200.00
From togas to tailcoats: a fashion time machine
Roman: Representative rich Etrusco-Greek building. Interior of the palace