Révéler le féminin. Mode et apparences au XVIIIᵉ siècle

“Revealing the Feminine: Fashion and Appearances in the 18th Century” occupies six rooms of the Hôtel Donon from March 25 to September 20, 2026.

The itinerary combines portraits, gallant scenes, and period clothing to show fashion as a driver of identity in the Age of Enlightenment. From Louis XV's embroidered court satins to muslins heralding the Empire style, the scenography weaves together material and image, painting and textile, in a constant dialogue.

The scientific project brings together Pascale Gorguet Ballesteros

When painted clothing rivaled real garments The first rooms contrast paintings with period costumes. Robes à la française worn over panniers, embroidered stomachers, lace mantlets: each displayed garment has its counterpart in the adjacent paintings.

The itinerary, designed by Pascale Gorguet Ballesteros (Palais Galliera), Adeline Collange-Perugi (Nantes Museum of Arts), and Saskia Ooms (Cognacq-Jay Museum), echoes "18th-Century Fashion: A Fantasized Heritage" curated by the same curator at Palais Galliera.

A portrait attributed to Nattier idealizes the features of Madame Adélaïde, daughter of Louis XV, while faithfully rendering the drape of blue satin.

The rivalry between nobility and rising bourgeoisie fuels this art of appearance, where choice of fabric or jewelry displays rank as much as it builds a self-image.

The next room narrows the focus on three portraitists whose technique glorifies textures. Antoine Vestier, trained in miniature, details the delicacy of a floral motif on taffeta.

Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, herself a miniaturist and daughter of a Parisian haberdasher owning the fashion boutique "À la toilette," draws from this mercantile world a keen taste for costume. Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, daughter of a hairdresser and a pastel artist, trained with a fan painter, sharpening her eye for ornament detail.

Velvet, furs, gold embroidery: each adornment signals status and crafts a self-portrait.

Intimacy in the light: when undergarments take the lead From the 1770s, portraiture registers a shift. Philosophers celebrate conjugal happiness; Jean-Jacques Rousseau publishes Emile or On Education in 1762, granting children a psychology worthy of attention.

A new vein of portraits accompanies these ideas: women appear with a simpler beauty, children playful and mischievous. Thematic rooms compose the path in Hôtel Donon. Clothing expresses this transformation.

Cotton fabrics and white muslins, stemming from underwear and the intimate world, flood the portraits. Undergarments come to the fore.

This small portrait shows Émilie Vernet at nine years old, bust-length, with her face turned three-quarters to the left. The girl wears a white satin dress and a pearl necklace, raising her right hand toward her face in a playful gesture.

Daughter of renowned marine painter Joseph Vernet, Émilie is part of a series of three Vernet children's portraits painted by Lépicié between 1769 and 1771; both families lived at the Louvre. Émilie's mischievous tenderness signals a renewed view of childhood, although dressed like an adult, her pose preserves the ambiguity of a "little woman."

This tension between adult adornment and childlike naturalness illustrates the transition highlighted in room 4, where Rousseauist ideas begin transforming childhood representation in French portraiture. French and English paintings correspond throughout the exhibit.

The French works, nourished by Rousseauist ideals, favor naturalness and family emotion. The English cultivate refined, relaxed elegance.

At the dawn of the 19th century, these two traditions influence each other and foreshadow the gradual abandonment of panniers and corseted bodies in favor of flowing dresses with high waistbands, early signs of the future Empire style.

Brocaded silk, panniers, and box pleats: anatomy of a formal silhouette A centerpiece of the female wardrobe in the Enlightenment era, the robe à la française alone embodies the combination of textile luxury and sculpted silhouette.

Its architecture, with box pleats at the back, side panniers, and corseted bodice, creates a distinctive shape rendered by court painters with precision rivaling that of real fabric.

The brocaded silk robe à la française exhibited here, dated circa 1770-1775, illustrates the style's peak under Louis XVI's reign.

Characterized by its box pleats extending into a train, it is worn over a corset and panniers that widen the hips.