Toboi byl tak ukrashen svet!" Vystavka kostiumov imperatritsy Marii Fedorovny. K 260 letiiu so dnia rozhdeniia ("You adorned the world!" Exhibition of Empress Maria Feorovna's wardrobe. [Published on the occasion of] the 260th anniversary of her birth); « !».
St. Petersburg: Pavlovsk, 2019. Sewn pb. This catalogue of an exhibition at Pavlovsk Palace Museum celebrates the worldly side of the grand duchess, empress, empress dowager who after her engagement in the 1770s to Paul, heir of Catherine the Great, spent a half century at the pinnacle of Russian society. She took her role as a model of fashion and taste seriously and from early portraits of her after her engagement at age seventeen (by Alexander Roslin, Fedor Rokotov, 1770s) to a late one, when she was in her sixties (George Dawe, 1820s), she exemplified European fashions. The author points out how styles of dress were connected with architecture and decorative arts, mirroring Rococo or Neoclassical tastes. The catalogue's visual documents comprise articles of Maria Fedorovna's wardrobe from all four museums in Russia where they are held — this is the first time the works have been exhibited and published together — and portraits of her done during her lifetime, which show the articles of clothing as they looked in use. Another unusual aspect of the exhibition is its publcation of such varied works of costume: ceremonial dresses, court attire, ballroom dresses, visiting dresses, home dresses, and accessories: fans, shoes, supporting frame for dresses. Some dresses come from France; many were tailored in Russia by Western European and Russian couturiers. 71 p., approx. 100 color illus. Item #4105
ISBN: 9785918160473
Price: $62.00