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'Evening Costume', May 1826

3 of 26 portraits by George Byrom Whittaker

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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'Evening Costume', May 1826

probably by William Read, published by George Byrom Whittaker, published in La Belle Assemblée or Bell's Court and Fashionable Magazine
hand-coloured etching and stipple engraving, published 1 May 1826
8 1/2 in. x 5 1/4 in. (215 mm x 133 mm) paper size
Acquired, 1930
Reference Collection
NPG D47579

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Described in the issue for May 1826:
Over a white satin slip, a dress of tulle, with a very full buffont puckering round the border, forming two rows. The fulness of these rich ornaments is confined by straps of satin, placed in bias at equal distances. The waist is à la Suisse, and is laced down the front with silk cordon. The sleeves are short, from the shoulder to rather more than the middle of the arm above the elbow: they are formed of two rows of puckering, exactly corresponding with the ornaments at the border of the skirt, and confined by the same kind of satin straps. From these short sleeves depend the long ones; which are of tulle, with bows down the visible part of the inside of the arm, and they terminate at the wrists by old English points of white satin. The shoulders are ornamented with clusters of bows formed of white satin ribbon, and the gown is made of a proper, yet quite decorous lowness round the bust for full dress. The hair is arranged in very full curls on each side of the face, and parted on the forehead. A French béret turban of white crape and satin, with a full plume of white feathers on the side that is elevated; on the other side, that covers the hair, are two very small white feathers. The necklace is formed of several rows of pearls, twisted; the ear-pendants are of superb pear pearls.

Events of 1826back to top

Current affairs

Riots break out in Lancashire against the use of the power loom, invented by Edmund Cartwright. The looms were gradually being introduced across the country, replacing large numbers of manual workers.

Art and science

Thomas Telford's Menai Straits and Conway Suspension Bridges open, the largest of their kind at the time.

International

Carl Weber arrives to live in England after his opera Der Freischutz is the hit of the London season.

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