DOI Heft:
No. 90 (September, 1900)
DOI Artikel:Lees, Frederic: Round the exhibition, [2] - A palace of dress
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19785#0259
A Palace of Dress
would it have been possible to cover the of her time. The composition of the subjects
ground in a manner at all adequate to the and the designing of the costumes he entrusted
subject. But as this was somewhat outside the to the well-known artist, M. T. Thomas) while
scope of the Exhibition, M. Felix, whose posi- M. Charles Risler, the architect, was given the
tion as the leading costumier of Paris and as an work of reconstituting the architecture. No easy
authority on dress enabled him to command a task had they before them, and the five years
large working capital, decided to undertake this between the time they commenced and the date
stupendous task of forming an exhibition of for opening the Exhibition were none too long,
dress from the earliest to the latest times. M. Felix, M. Thomas, and M. Marcel Halle, an
Each period, he determined, ought to be typified erudit and an artist in one, visited innumerable
by a group or groups of wax figures (a la Madame museums, deciphered innumerable manuscripts,
Tussaud's, but oh ! how superior from an artistic copied innumerable illuminations. In many cases
point of view—let me say it without disparage- the greatest difficulty was encountered in obtaining
ment—to that marvel of our childhood), repre- reliable information about particular forms of dress :
senting woman in her true milieu, reproducing ordinary sources failed them, and recourse had to
with scrupulous fidelity not only her dress and be had to savants, archaeologists, searchers in the
accessories, but the architecture and the furniture most out-of-the-way corners.
With what success the efforts of
M. Felix and his collaborators have
been crowned can be judged by a
visit—and let it be a lengthy one—
to the Palais du Costume. The art
with which these thirty odd tableaux
have been composed will be apparent
at a glance, even to one with no special
knowledge of the laws of composition.
No ordinary wax-work show this, but
one in which the figures, perfectly
natural in pose and in expression,
come as near to the living human form
as is possible with dead material.
How admirable the lighting, too, and
how varied ! To the artist these are
true pictures.
The earliest examples of dress thus
shown by means of figures draped in
such a manner as to tell some story or
other are Roman. M. Albert Gayet,
in making explorations at Antinoopolis,
in Egypt, in 1896 and 1897, discovered
examples of costumes worn by Patri-
cian ladies of the Roman colony of
that place. These, now belonging to
the Lyons Chamber of Commerce,
were in a sufficiently good state of
preservation to allow of exact copies
being made without any very great
difficulty for use in the first scene.
" At Antinoopolis " represents a visit
of Patrician ladies to the dwelling of
a snake-charmer. The man is in a
crouching position, holding his rod
poised above the raised head of the
reptile, the movements of which are
228
would it have been possible to cover the of her time. The composition of the subjects
ground in a manner at all adequate to the and the designing of the costumes he entrusted
subject. But as this was somewhat outside the to the well-known artist, M. T. Thomas) while
scope of the Exhibition, M. Felix, whose posi- M. Charles Risler, the architect, was given the
tion as the leading costumier of Paris and as an work of reconstituting the architecture. No easy
authority on dress enabled him to command a task had they before them, and the five years
large working capital, decided to undertake this between the time they commenced and the date
stupendous task of forming an exhibition of for opening the Exhibition were none too long,
dress from the earliest to the latest times. M. Felix, M. Thomas, and M. Marcel Halle, an
Each period, he determined, ought to be typified erudit and an artist in one, visited innumerable
by a group or groups of wax figures (a la Madame museums, deciphered innumerable manuscripts,
Tussaud's, but oh ! how superior from an artistic copied innumerable illuminations. In many cases
point of view—let me say it without disparage- the greatest difficulty was encountered in obtaining
ment—to that marvel of our childhood), repre- reliable information about particular forms of dress :
senting woman in her true milieu, reproducing ordinary sources failed them, and recourse had to
with scrupulous fidelity not only her dress and be had to savants, archaeologists, searchers in the
accessories, but the architecture and the furniture most out-of-the-way corners.
With what success the efforts of
M. Felix and his collaborators have
been crowned can be judged by a
visit—and let it be a lengthy one—
to the Palais du Costume. The art
with which these thirty odd tableaux
have been composed will be apparent
at a glance, even to one with no special
knowledge of the laws of composition.
No ordinary wax-work show this, but
one in which the figures, perfectly
natural in pose and in expression,
come as near to the living human form
as is possible with dead material.
How admirable the lighting, too, and
how varied ! To the artist these are
true pictures.
The earliest examples of dress thus
shown by means of figures draped in
such a manner as to tell some story or
other are Roman. M. Albert Gayet,
in making explorations at Antinoopolis,
in Egypt, in 1896 and 1897, discovered
examples of costumes worn by Patri-
cian ladies of the Roman colony of
that place. These, now belonging to
the Lyons Chamber of Commerce,
were in a sufficiently good state of
preservation to allow of exact copies
being made without any very great
difficulty for use in the first scene.
" At Antinoopolis " represents a visit
of Patrician ladies to the dwelling of
a snake-charmer. The man is in a
crouching position, holding his rod
poised above the raised head of the
reptile, the movements of which are
228