Revealing the feminine Fashion and Appearances in the 18th Century

Paris ( F ) > 25.03.2026 - 20.09.2026

Portraits, gallant scenes and historical textile pieces dialogue to explore the diversity of representations of femininity as they unfold in the stagings of the eighteenth century. The exhibition highlights the rise of a French style whose elegance then seduces European courses and aristocracy, revealing a history of the costume both rooted in a material reality and nourished by the imaginary.

At the heart of this time, France is the unavoidable theatre of refinement and prestige. Artists such as Maurice Quentin de La Tour, Jean-Marc Nattier, Adelaide Labille-Guiard, or Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun excellent to translate the brilliance of fabrics like the depth of souls, offering their models an aura of grace and power.

The course of the exhibition, which highlights these virtuoso works, is enriched with portraits marked by a new psychological dimension, where intimacy and the natural take a central place, under English influence. In parallel, the pastoral care of François Boucher and the gallant feasts of Antoine Watteau shape an idealized and poetic femininity.

Finally, contemporary photographs by Steven Meisel, Esther Ségal, or Valérie Belin, as well as a creation Chanel by Karl Lagerfeld, suggest in counterpoint a reflection on the persistence of codes and the legacy of the eighteenth century in the current fashion, between social and imaginary requirement of beauty.

Cognacq-Jay Museum
8 Elzévir Street
75003 Paris
Frankreich

weitere Infos: www.museecognacqjay.paris.fr/expositions/reveler-le-feminin