Ball dresses, March 1841

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Ball dresses, March 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 March 1841
7 7/8 in. x 5 3/4 in. (201 mm x 145 mm) paper size
Acquired, 1930
Reference Collection
NPG D47876

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Described in Le Follet, Courrier des Salons, Journal des Modes, Court Magazine and Museum on 1 March:
Dress of pink velours épinglé, the corsage very low in the neck tight to the bust, and à pointe with Berthe and stomacher of guipure. Sleeves very short and puffed, with a bouillon at bottom. Skirt ornamented with rows of pearls, figuring the tablier, two rows at each side of the front and between them small cordelières and tassels formed interspersed with full blown roses, with a bird of paradise drooping towards the neck at the left side. Gold feronnière, white kid gloves, the tops trimmed with lace, white satin shoes, brooch, bouquet.
2nd figure - The back hair in braids and dressed very low, quite at the roots of the hair with a row of pearls going round the head and a bird of paradise drooping to the side; dress of water green velours épinglé, the corsage low, tight to the bust, à pointe and with three seams; a garniture of lace, commencing at the right side of the waist and carried in a sort of spiral manner to the bottom of the skirt at the left side crosses the front of the dress; it may be observed that the lace forming this very new and uncommon trimming is half turned up, and half turned down, being retained at each turn by a ruby ornament. The sleeves are short and tight, and finished by a plain fall of lace, loossed rep[?] in front with a similar ornament to these on the dress. White kid gloves, the tops trimmed with swansdown. Long gold ear drops.

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Events of 1841back to top

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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