Beetle-Wing Embroidery in Nineteenth-Century Fashion
Beetle-wing embroidery: a colonialist fantasia and exotic fad in nineteenth-century England and...
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Author: Kenna Libes
1770-96 – Agostino Brunias, Free Women of Color with Their Children and Servants in a Landscape
In a late 18th-century painting organized by skin tone, Agostino Brunias has depicted a range of colonial Dominican fashions from the wealthy elite to the poorest people whom they enslaved.
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1787-9 – Alexandre-August Robineau, The Fencing-Match between the Chevalier de Saint-George and the Chevalier d’Eon
This 18th-century painting commemorates an historic fencing match between two French knights: one an illegitimate Black nobleman and the other a gender nonconforming spy.
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1797 – Anne-Louis Girodet, Portrait of Jean-Baptiste Belley
This important painting of a Black Haitian deputy, once enslaved, commemorates his participation in the assembly that abolished slavery in France in 1794. He wears the tricolored uniform of a deputy of the French National Convention and only his gold earring speaks to his Colonial ties.
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1650 – Diego Velázquez, Juan de Pareja
This dignified portrait by Diego Velázquez depicts his enslaved Black assistant, Juan de Pareja, who was a skilled artist in his own right.
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1778 – David Martin, Portrait of Dido Elizabeth Belle Lindsay and Lady Elizabeth Murray
This 18th-century grand manner portrait of two cousins juxtaposes fashionable turquerie with luxurious but conventional children’s clothing.
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guipure lace
Guipure lace is a type of continuous bobbin lace made without a mesh ground; its motifs are connected by bridges or plaits.
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1750 – Stephen Slaughter, Two Women Gathering Fruit
This painting of two 18th-century gentlewomen features fashionable trends in portraiture and clothing, including Orientalism, pastoralism, and masculine-inspired dress.
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1643 – J. Beckx, Portrait of Diego Bemba
Diego Bemba’s 1643 portrait, along with those of Pedro Sunda and Miguel de Castro, represents an early example of cultural exchange in which African ambassadors donning European costume in order to project a carefully curated image of cultural capital.
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