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Ball and dinner dresses, 1841

42 of 69 portraits matching these criteria:

- subject matching 'Fashion Plates: Fabrics - Velvet'

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Ball and dinner dresses, 1841

published by Dobbs & Co, published in The Court Magazine and Monthly Critic and Lady's Magazine and Museum, first published in Le Follet, Courrier des Salons, Journal des Modes
hand-coloured etching, line and stipple engraving, published January 1841
8 1/8 in. x 5 3/4 in. (205 mm x 147 mm) paper size
Acquired, 1930
Reference Collection
NPG D47875

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The plate was first published in Paris in 'Le Follet' on 19 December 1840. Described in the Court Magazine:
Standing figure - Dress of blue satin, the corsage is low, décolletée and à pointe, the front with three seams, and draperies à la Sévigné, the lower fold of the draperies being à pointe to match the corsage. The sleeves à double sabot finished by deep ruffles of point d'application, they are slightly looped up in front, but shade the elbow at back. Marabout tips mixed with silver wheat are visible between the puffing of the sleeve and the ruffle. The trimming on the skirt is quite of a novel description, it is in the tablier style; four very full bows of satin ribbon, gradually increasing in size as they go down each side of the skirt of the dress, retain each a branch of marabout tips, and silver wheat ears, whilst running across the skirt is a fall of deep lace en feston, reaching nearly from bow to bow, being sufficiently taken up at the sides (or ends) as to give the appearance of a festoon. The hair is in simple bands dressed low at the back, with marabouts falling over the back of the neck, a branch of silver wheat springs from the feathers over the left ear, and a band of silver chain work, with an ornament in front forms a kind of feronnière, white satin shoes, and white kid gloves covering the wrists merely.
Sitting figure - Mantelet cloak of black velvet, lined with rose color satin and wadded. A deep biais (or piece cut on the cross way) goes entirely round the mantelet outside which is a deep black lace. Coiffure of marabouts and golden wheat; the back hair in braids and rouleaux falling over the neck. The dress is of light fawn colour satin - white kid gloves, fan.

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Current affairs

Sir Robert Peel's second term as Prime Minister. Peel replaces the Whig Prime Minister Lord Melbourne after a Conservative general election victory. The English comic periodical Punch is first published, under the auspices of engraver Ebenezer Landells and writer Henry Mayhew, and quickly establishes itself as a radical commentary on the arts, politics and current affairs, notable for its heavily satirised cartoons.

Art and science

Thomas Carlyle publishes his set of lectures On Heroes and Hero Worship, in which he attempts to connect past heroic figures to significant figures form the present.
William Henry Fox Talbot invents the calotype process, in which photographs were developed from negatives. This allowed for multiple copies of images to be made, and was the basis of modern, pre-digital, photographic processing.

International

Signing of the Straits Convention, an international agreement between Britain, France, Prussia, Austria, Russia and Turkey, denying access to non-Ottoman warships through the seas connecting the Mediterranean and the Black Seas, a major concession by Russia. Whilst signalling a spirit of co-operation, the convention emphasises the decline of the Ottoman Empire.

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