16-19C Reflections - Women & Mirrors

Giovanni Bellini (1430-1516) Naked Young Woman in Front of the Mirror 1515

Titian Tiziano Vercelli (1488- 1576) Vanity 1514

Hans Memling (1435-1494) Vanity 1485

Titian Tiziano Vercelli (1488- 1576) Venus in Front of the Mirror 1553

Master of the Fontainebleau School, Diane de Poitiers, c. 1590

Titian Tiziano Vercelli (1488- 1576) Young Woman Combing Her Hair 1514

Gerard Terborch (Dutch Baroque Era Painter, 1617-1681) Mirror

Gerard Terborch (Dutch Baroque Era Painter, 1617-1681) Lady at Her Toilet c 1660

Girolamo Forabosco (1605-1679) Ragazza Allo Specchio

Gerard Terborch (Dutch Baroque Era Painter, 1617-1681) Hair

Edgar Degas (1834-1917) Woman Combing Her Hair Before a Mirror

Eva Gonzalès, French (1849-1883) Le Petit Lever

Joseph De Camp (1858-1923) Girl with a Green Shawl

Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) Jo la belle Irlandaise

Édouard Manet (1832-1883) Nana c 1877

William Merritt Chase (1849-1916) The Mirror

Jean Édouard Vuillard (1868-1940) Mme Vuillard Arranging Her Hair 1900

William Merritt Chase (1849-1916) Young Woman Before a Mirror

Edgar Degas (1834-1917) Woman at Her Toilette Hair 1895-1900

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) . Madame Poupoule at Her Dressing Table. 1899-1900

Mary Cassatt (1844-1926). Woman at Her Toilette 1909

Édouard Manet (1832-1883) Woman before a Mirror c 1877

Edgar Degas (1834–1917) At The Mirror

Edgar Degas (1834–1917) Madame Jeantaud in the mirror, c 1875

Edmund Charles Tarbell (1862–1938) The Mirror (also known as Girl with a Mirror)

Félix Vallotton (1865-1925) Coquetterie, 1911

William MacGregor Paxton (American painter, 1869-1941) Girl Combing Her Hair 1909

Thomas Wilmer Dewing (1851–1938) Before the Mirror 1908

Edward John Poynter (English Classicist painter, 1836-1919) The Bunch of Blue Ribbons 1862

Leon de Smet (1881-1966) The Woman at the Mirror

Edmund Charles Tarbell (1862–1938) Preparing for the Matinee

Konstantin Andreevic Somov (Russian artist, 1869-1939) Lady at the Mirror 1898

Edmund Charles Tarbell (1862–1938)

Jacques-Emile Blanche (French Painter, 1861-1942) In the Mirror

William Worcester Churchill (American-born British artist, 1858-1926) Mirror

George Laurence Nelson (American artist, 1887-1978) Bussie Hutty

John Murphy (American painter, 1853-1921) Woman at Mirror

Guy Orlando Rose (American painter, 1867-1925) The Green Mirror 1911

Robert Vonnoh (American artist, 1858–1933) Bessie Potter Vonnah at Her Dressing Table

Guy Orlando Rose (American painter, 1867-1925) Marion

Arvid Nyholm (American artist, 1866–1927) At Her Vanity

Everett Lloyd Bryant (American artist, 1864–1945) At the Vanity

Frank W. Benson (American artist, 1862-1951) Reflections 1921

Thomas P. Anshutz (American artist, 1851-1912) A Passing Glance

James Wells Champney (American artist, 1843–1903) The Coquette

 Jules Emile Saintin (French artist, 1829–1894) A Fair Glance

Alfred Stevens (Belgian painter 1818–1875) Reveil

 Frank Markham Skipworth (British artist, 1854-1929 ) The Mirror 1911

Robert Lewis Reid (American artist, 1862-1929) The Mirror

Frederick Carl Frieseke (American artist, 1874-1939) Reflections 1908

William Henry Margetson (British artist, 1861-1940) The Precious Gift

Fanny Fluery (French artist, 1848-1920) Unknown Woman

Robert Hope (British artist, 1869-1936)  Before the Looking Glass

Albert Henry Collings (British artist, 1868–1947) Looking in the Mirror

Ilya Ivanovich Mashkov (Russian artist, 1881–1944) Lady in Blue, 1927

Walt Kuhn (American artist, 1877-1949) Girl With Mirror 1929

Ivan Olinsky (Russian-born American artist, 1878-1962) Girl in the Mirror

Conrad Felixmüller (German artist, 1897-1977) Londa vor dem Spiegel, 1933

18C Women Around the World

Costumes de Differents Pays, by Jacques Grasset de Saint-Sauveur (France, 1757-1810) c 1797 Hand-Colored Engraving from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

By the end of the 18C, worldwide exploration & colonization by Europeans were fairly commonplace, enabling the late 18C & 19C public to catch a glimpse of the clothing & customs of other peoples.

Women Arranging Flowers Indoors 17-20C

Anna Ancher (Danish painter, 1859-1935) Arranging Flowers

Théodule Augustin Ribot (French artist, 1823-1891) Girl Arranging Flowers

Frederic Bazille (French Painter, 1841-1870) Woman Arranging Flowers - Peonies

Otto Scholderer (German Painter, 1834-1902) Cutting Flowers for an Arrangement

Gustave Courbet (French artist, 1819-1877). Girl Arranging Flowers

Victor-Gabriel Gilbert (French artist, 1847-1933)  Arranging Flowers for a Bouquet

The myth or symbolism of The Language of Flowers (floriography) is a means of cryptological communication through the use or arrangement of flowers. Meaning has been attributed to flowers for thousands of years, & some form of floriography has been practiced in traditional cultures throughout Europe, Asia, & Africa. Plants & flowers are used as symbols in the Hebrew Bible, particularly of love & lovers in the Song of Songs, as an emblem for the Israelite people & for the coming Messiah. In Western culture, William Shakespeare ascribed emblematic meanings to flowers, especially in Hamlet, & Henry VI, with its red & white rose symbols.

Arthur Hacker (English Pre-Raphaelite painter, 1858-1919) Christabel Cockerell Lady Frampton 1900

Theo van Rysselberghe (Belgian artist, 1862-1926) Woman arranging Flowers

Jean Frederic Bazille (French Painter, 1841-1870) Woman Arranging Flowers

Viggo Johansen (Danish artist, 1851-1935) Kitchen Interior-The Artist's Wife Arranging Flowers

Sir (Samuel Henry) William Llewellyn (British artist, 1858–1941) The Flower Arranger

Caspar Netscher (Dutch Baroque Era Painter, c 1635-1684) Girl Arranging Flowers

Interest in floriography soared in Victorian England & in the United States during the 19th century. Gifts of blooms, plants, & specific floral arrangements were used to send a coded message to the recipient, allowing the sender to express feelings which could not be spoken aloud in Victorian society. Armed with floral dictionaries, Victorians often exchanged small "talking bouquets", called nosegays or tussie-mussies, which could be worn or carried as a fashion accessory.

Franck Antoine Bail (French artist, 1858-1924) The Flower Arrangement

Jean Baptiste Antoine Emile Beranger (French artist, 1814-1883)  A Portrait of the Artist's Sister 1856

Fernand Blondin (Swiss artist, 1887-1967) Return

Theo van Rysselberghe (Belgian artist, 1862-1926) Girl Arranging Flowers

Albert Chevallier Tayler (British 1862-1925) Women arranging Flowers

The Victorian era interest in the language of flowers finds its roots in Ottoman Turkey, specifically the court in Constantinople & an obsession it held with tulips during the first half of the 18th century. The Victorian use of flowers as a means of covert communication bloomed alongside a growing interest in botany.

Walter Ernest Webster (British artist, 1878-1959) Woman Tending Flowers in a Vase

Gustave Courbet (French painter, 1819-1877) Trellis or Young Woman Arranging Flowers, 1862

Herbert James Draper (English artist, 1864-1920) Making Potpourri 1897

Anders Leonard Zorn (Swedish painter, 1860–1920) Fru Lisen Samson, nee Hirsch, Arranging Flowers at a Window 1881

Otto Scholderer (German Painter, 1834-1902) The Flower Arrangement

 Joseph Hammer-Purgstall's Dictionnaire du language des fleurs (1809) appears to be the first published list associating flowers with symbolic definitions, while the first dictionary of floriography appears in 1819 when Louise Cortambert, writing under pen name Madame Charlotte de la Tour, wrote Le langage des Fleurs.

Frederic Leighton (English Classicist Painter and Sculptor, 1830-1896) Mrs James Guthrie

Emile Claus (Belgian artist, 1849-1924) Young Woman Arranging Flowers

Frank Bramley (English artist, 1857-1915) Arranging Flowers

Floriography was popularized in France during 1810–1850, while in Britain it was popular during the Victorian age (roughly 1820–1880), & in the United States during 1830–1850.

Frederick Sandys (English Pre-Raphaelite Painter, c 1829-1904)  Grace Rose 1866

Anna Ancher (Danish painter, 1859-1935) A Young Girl Arranging Flowers 1885

Hans Bertle (German artist, 1880-1943) Arranging Flowers

In the United States the first appearance of the language of flowers in print was in the writings of Constantine Samuel Rafinesque, a French-American naturalist, who wrote on-going features under the title "The School of Flora", from 1827 through 1828, in the weekly Saturday Evening Post & the monthly Casket; or Flowers of Literature, Wit, & Sentiment. These pieces contained the botanic, English, & French names of the plant, a description of the plant, an explanation of its Latin names, & the flower's emblematic meaning.

Henry Meynell Rheam (British artist, 1859-1920) Arranging Flowers

Albert Lynch (Peruvian artist, 1851-1912)  Woman arranging Flowers, detail

Dante Gabriel Rossetti (British artist, 1828-1882) Marigolds 1874

Anders Leonard Zorn (Swedish painter, 1860–1920) Fru Lisen Samson, nee Hirsch, Arranging Flowers at a Window 1881

Mihály Munkácsy (Hungarian artist, 1844-1900) Woman Arranging Flowers 1882

18C Women Around the World

Costumes de Differents Pays, by Jacques Grasset de Saint-Sauveur (France, 1757-1810) c 1797 Hand-Colored Engraving from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

By the end of the 18C, worldwide exploration & colonization by Europeans were fairly commonplace, enabling the late 18C & 19C public to catch a glimpse of the clothing & customs of other peoples.