The Reluctant Bride (Wedded Bliss Book 1)

Product Information

The neck and fronts, cuffs and hems are edged with wide bands of white arctic fox (Canis lagopus) and deep fringes of chenille trimming. Her gown is of a bluish-grey tone silk satin material, and her dolman has an exquisite pattern achieved either through embroidery or jacquard material. During the 19th century, the bride’s dress design gives an important insight into the century’s customs and social convention.

Her focus is clear and despite the fact that she is comforted by the two women, she reacts to neither gesture. As for the younger girl in the background, she is dressed in an almost dusty blush-colored gown of either duchess silk satin or taffeta. He was best known for his depictions of idle beautiful women dressed in sumptuous fabrics, set against backdrops of equally luxurious interiors.Chitchat upon New York and Philadelphia Fashions for December,” Godey’s Lady’s Magazine 73 (1866): 548. The woman with the dolman has clearly just arrived, evidenced by her accessories, from the carelessly tossed bonnet on the chair to her half-gloved hands. The women depicted in Toulmouche’s painting are fashionable as evidenced by the fashion plates and wedding ensembles of that period–from the silhouette of a small fitted waist and a bell skirt (Fig. According to Sotheby’s, The Hesitant Fiancée was possibly exhibited in the Paris Salon of 1866 (as no.

Under Gleyre’s guidance, Toulmouche learned to paint in the Académie des Beaux-Arts style that dominated French art in the mid-19th century. shows a red gown that is similar in look to what the women are wearing in Toulmouche’s painting–from the silhouette, to the decoration of the fur trim around the neck, the armholes, and the cuff–showing the look to be not only fashionable, but also somewhat classic. The few known facts about Toulmouche’s artistic background are that in 1841, he was studying design with another local sculptor, Amedo Rene Menard.Her dress is decorated similarly to the other two women, with fur strips that wrap around her neck, armholes and wrists. Virginia Bruce is a laboratory-bound entomologist who's got a dull colleague/fiance in Brian Oulton. The other woman in the painting, the one holding the bride’s hand, is dressed in a burnt orange satin/velvet high neck gown. More elaborately trimmed gowns would become fashionable only a few years later, as evidenced by the 1868 photograph of Adelina Patti’s wedding to Marquis Henri de Caux (Fig. One is holding her hand; while the other with the shawl, who seemingly just arrived, is kissing her on the forehead.

Satins will be very much worn: they are of very elegant quality, and rich shades such as crimson, Magenta, blue, green, with the softer shades of mode. Janet Whitmore in her biography on Toulmouche quotes critic Emile Zola who referred to Toulmouche’s painted women as “Toulmouche’s delicious dolls” [ délicieuses poupées de Toulmouche] (Whitmore). One moment I’m the forgotten daughter of one of the most wealthy families in the country, and the next I’m the blushing bride in an arranged marriage.

She is in a high-neck gown decorated by a downy white fur trim that goes around her neck, down the center front of her bodice, around her armholes and her wrists.

In The Hesitant Fiancée, Auguste Toulmouche steps away from his usual depiction of beautiful yet idle women Emile Zola described as “Toulmouche’s delicious dolls. What they share are a brother and a sister who are married, have three too-bright children, and have been missing on an African expedition for seven years. Focusing on the woman kissing the bride’s forehead, her clothing is within the societal norms of the 1860s with the high collar and the fuller skirt. While it was fashionable to have the a bridal gown of white and ivory, as Johnston notes, colored wedding ensembles were also acceptable (Fig. A reluctant bride, presumably coming from an affluent family as evidenced by her rather opulent bridal dress, sits in a parlor room before the wedding ceremony.Despite the simplicity, the gown is no less opulent because of the striking color of white and the shine of the silk fabric. During the 1860s the fashion rules for women allowed the crinoline to change its shape, becoming flatter at the front and then shrinking to a half-crinoline with half hoops at the back. Despite the magnificent play of color and texture, the most striking aspect of this painting is the bride’s direct gaze at the viewer.