WEEK-5 GAINSBOROUGH, Sir Thomas (1727-1788) "The Mall" 1783

Here's what Encyclopedia Britannica has to say about this picture:

"A new venture in 1783 was The Mall in St. James' Park, a park scene
described by Horace Walpole as all a flutter like a lady's fan. The Morning
Walk, with romanticized figures strolling in a landscape, is painted in the
same spirit. The fancy pictures painted in the 1780s gave Gainsborough
particular pleasure.

The detailed images that made it worth looking at this painting
(unfortunately missing the centre grouping) come from Aileen Ribeiro's new
edition of _Dress in Eighteenth Century Europe_. Here are some of the
things she has to say:

" For those not involved in the supervision of servants, a fashionable
deshabille or undress could be worn in the parks and gardens that every city
possessed and that were places to display the latest styles. In London, St.
James's Park and especially the Mall were places in which to be seen
walking. Jacob Friedrich von Bielfield found the dress of the ladies in the
Mall "extremely neat; instead of a large hoop, they have short pettycoats;
their gowns are elegant but not gaudy; they have short cloaks trimd with
lace and little hats either of straw or beaver or els feathers in their hair
(Bielfield 1768-1770, v.4)" When dressed for the day, a hooped, formal open
robe would have been worn, suitable for all occasions except appearance a
tthe opera, formal assembly or court." (175)

Caption from full painting (176): "This is the painting that Awlpole aptly
described as 'all a-flutter like a lady's fan'. The floating layers of silk
gauze for the dresses emphasize the soft, rounded outline of the fashionable
lady."

Caption from Left Girls and Right Group (222): "In these details from
Gainsborough's "The Mall", the light silk dresses eiether trail on the
ground or are bunched up at the back and sides."

Caption from Right Couple (225): "In this back view of a fashionable woman,
the floating layers of the drapery are fastened up in the jaunty triple
loops of the polonaise."

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