Fashion plate (woman)
Artist
French
Date18th century
Mediumetching and roulette with watercolor on white laid paper
Dimensionssheet: 19.7 x 12.8 cm (7 3/4 x 5 1/16 in.)
ClassificationsPrints
Credit LineGift of Mr. and Mrs. Hall James Peterson
Object number1982.169
DescriptionImage in border with thin black line on all but right side image.Label TextDuring the first half of the eighteenth century, a stay-maker—usually a man—had the formidable task of creating the excessively girt waists of upper class women. These men had the job of measuring women at their homes for the rigid whalebone corsets to “fix” their bodies. According to a 1747 article in the London Tradesman, “[The stay-maker] takes the Lady’s shape as nicely as he can; if it is natural and where it is not, he supplies the deficiency; then he cuts out the tabby.” In this print, the woman’s hourglass figure is so exaggerated that even her tall hat is wider than her waist.
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