Sue Williams A’Court

This blog is guilty of regularly featuring glorious artwork from long-dead artists, but sometimes, just sometimes, it ventures into the land of the living [artist].

Sue Williams A'Court for example, is an artist whose work is very much inspired by those from the eighteenth century.  Her paintings are reminiscent of Gainsborough landscape prints and I am particularly reminded of them when I look at A'Court's pastoral trees.  Her most recent series blends famous portraits with natural formations.  In the spirit of Giuseppe Arcimboldo, the sixteenth-century painter who formed heads out of vegetables, A'Court transforms tufts of Arcadian landscape into imagery reminiscent of famous portraits.  See if you can pick out the portraits from these works.

After the Duchess of Devonshire

After the Hon Mrs Graham

After Marie Antoinette

The Escape fro Eden series will be exhibited at START Saatchi Gallery, London, 14-17th of September. Her work is currently on view at 'Only Connect' Curated by Prof. David Remfry RA Royal Academy The Keepers House.

Charlie Billingham

Another contemporary artist who has come to my attention lately is Charlie Billingham whose paintings are just plain glorious.  Billingham appropriates British satirical prints from our favourite century into his paintings.  Cropping the famous prints, sometimes stretching them, and using bright, exciting colours and loose lines, Billingham takes out the old social and political message (and context all together), adding mystery to these images which, if you've never seen them, could be quite indecipherable to begin with.  Let's take a look.

Billingham has recently had shows at Saatchi Gallery, and I am sure there will be more to come so keep your eyes peeled!

Pippa Attends 18th Century French Ball

Ahh, Pippa Middleton, what a life! As if we didn't lust after her playgirl lifestyle enough (but maybe not the cameras that come with it) this past weekend she was canoodling with hot vicomtes at a saucy eighteenth-century themed ball.  The designer most sought-after by these young debutantes? Leg Avenue.  Classy!  Apologies for coming off a bit snippety, this is out of sorrow that my invitation was lost in the post.  I should ease up on the snark.  ALTHOUGH, Ms Middleton made one fatal mistake.

That hair!!

Pippa, we know you come from a regal line of lovely locks, and you and your sister share the same signature look in that regard.  But Girl, look to you left, now look to your right.  Do you see those fabulous coiffures complete with feathers and even powder?  Those betches are outshining you, and that's just not right!  Oh and I don't care if this isn't your "thing," you should go all-in to themed parties or not at all.  What I see here is a missed opportunity, one that there may not be another opportunity to correct!

Mail Online

Yinka Shonibare

I'm long overdue in a post on the amazing contemporary artist Yinka Shonibare whose work is as breathtaking as it is thought-provoking.  Shonibare is a London sculptural and instillation artist who deals with the theme of class and globalization, more specifically the complicated relationship between Africa and Europe.  So you will often seen African-style textiles on his sculptures which take the form of something commonly European. 

Long before he had his giant Ship in a Bottle sculpture in Trafalgar Square, Shonibare was playing with eighteenth century imagery, with astonishing results:

Here are some of his work that reference eighteenth century paintings.  Can you recognize all of them?

Others are just plain fantastic:

Ob-sessed: Coiffure Products

Oh marketing gimmicks!  While looking for hairspray this weekend I came across a product with the image you see above.  Did I need Umberto Gianni's Backcomb in a Bottle? No.  Did I want it? You know it!

More marketing
gimmicks!

Luckily the company puts out travel sizes of their products which is ideal for impulse buyers like myself.  Well, it looks like I will be buying the normal-size version in the future too, this stuff is great!  Take a few strands of hair that need some pouf action and spritz them and  style your glorious locks into the coiffure of your choice.  It does have hairspray-like elements in it so it will harden hair.  For extra 18th century action you can pair it with Bumble and Bumble white hair powder (one of my essential hair products) and you will really be indulging in your inner eighteenth-century fashionista/o. 

I found Backcomb in a Bottle at Boots, North American peeps will sadly have order them from overseas, because I haven't yet found any US suppliers- let me know if you do find it stateside though!

18th Century Fashion on the Streets: Muffs

 I have been very pleased that every since the north wind began blowing this season that I began to see the resurrection of the muff both in shops and on the street.  Not only does this allow many cleverly crass puns on your part but also another means of exhibiting an 18th century fashion trend.

In the beginning of the 18th century muffs were rather small and cozy, allowing for efficient hand-warming.  Mary Robinson sports one of the smaller muffs in her 1782 Romney portrait which is similar to muffs I've seen for sale at John Lewis and Top Shop (the later of which I own and love!).  Toward the end of the century muffs became bigger and bigger, escalating in size until they nearly hung to the wearers knees, turning practical hand warmers into a quite cumbersome fashion accessory.  I've noticed these in the shops as well (not knee-length, thank goodness) in the form of the "snood."  Snoods are circular scarves meant for your neck but it wasn't until I saw my friend using her faux fur snood as a muff on a night out that I realized furry snoods are ideal late-18th/early-19th century muffs.  Check out my finds below!  Not only are muffs fashionable, but they're also quite handy for texting on cold winter walks- no pulling off gloves to respond to texts anymore!

Muffs for Winter '12 by georgianagossip featuring John Lewis Women

Aso, $27
John Lewis women, £13
French connection, £18
Asos Faux Fur Muffler, $11

Remember Darlings, just because it is cold outside doesn't mean you have to sacrifice fashion! Keep those dainty fingers covered.

Trouble with Travel: Hats

While scouring for pictures of the royal wedding in Edinburgh today I cam across this gem, which I found rather adorable.

 Get in the back, Kate! 

Then I looked at it again and realized poor Katie Cambridge is hunched over due to her rather large hat (been there, Honey)! 

That instantly brought to mind a satirical print from Matthew Darly in 1776 when hair heights were at their largest.  Elegant females were constantly forced to sit on the floor due to their hair; there was no other way to get around it aside from sticking your head out the window.  Here's hoping that someday we will have vehicles to accommodate fashion!

Monaco Bridesmaids

Did anyone watch the Monaco wedding this weekend?  Despite being home very little, I did manage to catch some of it.  Honestly, the newly married couple would have done better holding off on the wedding until next year, since it just couldn't match the previous royal wedding in April.  Yes, yes I know that is quite a superficial statement.  However, I couldn't help but compare the two weddings, the later of which was missing some major magic.  What it did have, though, was super-cute bridesmaids!


The bridesmaids were wearing "traditional" Monaco costumes, which Princess Caroline directed and had the director of the Ballets de Monte-Carlo create.  Look at how cute they are!  Each one of the little 18th century candy-striper outfits took 120 hours to create.  Now stripes are usually the last choice of a bride for her wedding party (not to mention 18th century dresses) but I like the effect that they had walking behind Princess
Charlene. 

Another adorable thing about these little cupcakes is that they were not personally connected to the royal couple.  The girls are local girls from all around Monaco (all .76 square miles of it) and embroidered on each of their aprons they had the couple's monogram and the the area (neighborhood?) where the girl is from.  I think if I were a royal I would have these little maids follow me around all the time!

As if You Needed Advertising Louboutin!

The Christian Louboutin Fall lookbook is out and boy, does it look fab!  This season Louboutin has recreated great paintings from history to display these most fabulous of shoes.  Honestly, though, didn't they know we'd be drooling over them as it is?

The nod to the 18th century features a Boucher-like image.  I can't believe they actually found a model with enough meat on her face!  The result is photoshopped, but lovely all the same.

More after the jump (one is NSFW)

Society Sisters

Ever since the royal wedding in April, Pippa Middleton has become a star.  The newly dubbed Duchess of Cambridge has been no stranger to the spotlight for some time now but as soon as her sister, Pippa stepped out in that famous McQueen gown, she too was turning heads.

Now whenever the two Middleton sisters step out together it's a double-duo of celebrity, paparazzi and fabulosity.  So of course, I am reminded of two other society sisters who became celebrities once one married a duke.  Photographs may not have existed in the 1770's but the press and satirical images certainly did.  Georgiana was almost always portrayed with her sister, Harriet who became a celebrity for her associations with her elder sister.  Once again, history repeats itself.

Setting Sail

I was thumbing through Tom and Lorenzo's photos from Bridal Week in Barcelona.  Ah lots of lace this season, big surprise...*gasp*...what's this!

Victorio and Lucchino opted to bring back the ship headress!  Both Georgiana and Marie Antoinette were known to have sported this most extravagant of poufs in their time.  I think it looks hot!  Perhaps I could walk down the aisle with one when the time comes; the ship in the hair look is the ultimate status symbol.

I am having trouble finding the whole collection but here are more pictures of it.  There are a lot of Jane Austen-esque empire gowns in the mix too!

Wouldst Thou Dance Wiv Me?

How many of you are familiar with Dizzee Rascal? No, no, he isn't fop or the subject of a George Stubbs painting. Dizzee is a rapper hailing from East London. Well known in the UK, but not so much in the Colonies, Lauren and I were introduced to Mr. Rascal via one of our shared favorite djs, Calvin Harris*. See for yourself:

Catchy, no? Well rumor has it that in working on his latest album, Dizzee has drawn inspiration from some interesting sources. "Dizzee hopes reading poetry will broaden his horizons and make him an even better rapper. He knows he has to push himself to make a great fifth album and reading accomplished poets can only help." Those "accomplished poets" that Dizzee has gotten close with happen to be John Keats, William Blake, Lord Byron and William Wordsworth. An interesting collection if you ask me; I thoroughly approve! I am very curious to see the effect of these fellow Englishmen on Dizzee.

Keats: Woman! when I behold thee flippant, vain,
Inconstant, childish, proud, and full of fancies;
Without that modest softening that enhances
The downcast eye, repentant of the pain
That its mild light creates to heal again -Woman When I Behold Thee

Blake: But most, through midnight streets I hear
How the youthful harlot's curse
Blasts the new-born infant's tear,
And blights with plagues the marriage hearse. -London

Byron: Fill the goblet again! for I never before
Felt the glow which now gladdens my heart to its core;
Let us drink ! --- who would not ? --- since, through life's varied round,
In the goblet alone no deception is found. -Fill the Goblet Again

Wordsworth: Heed not tho' none should call thee fair;
So, Mary, let it be
If nought in loveliness compare
With what thou art to me. -To Mary

Rascal: It's not a long ting, your the boom ting.
Maybe more than a hotel room ting.
I'll never know if I just walk past, I really wanna dance so I guess I'll just ask. -Dance Wiv Me

What I would love to see Dizzee do is a well-done adaption of the classic poetry, just like the psychobilly band, Tiger Army (another fav of mine) did with Poe's Annabel Lee.  He could totally bring back Byron's Fill the Goblet!

The Sun
Spinner



*For a funny story, ask either of us about the time we met Mr Harris!

Girl, I Want to Take you to a Gay Bar

The concept of a gay bar is not what you would call new.  You could easily say that they had been around for quite a while.  Eighteenth-century London was a city of sex.  Gentlemen had to put in little effort to find a prostitute to their liking, whether a woman, man, or even child.  Men searching for the intimate company of other men would find it in molly houses (quite literally meaning gay houses).

Were molly houses gay brothels? Well, I suppose that depends on which molly house you would be going to.  Some of the houses were in fact a place to find a male prostitute and like any other brothel you could be supplied with a room, liquor, or even a delicious meal if you so pleased.  Other molly houses were gathering places for the gay man, the equivalent of a gay bar.  Liquor, dancing, music and drag queens would be found here, as well as a good time.  Additionally, there were several rooms for rent so if things got hot and heavy on the dance floor you could take the romance to a place more private and equally nonjudgmental- for a price of course.  Margaret "Mother" Clap was a notorious molly house procuress, who presumably ran her business out of her own home and did it for the pleasure of the company; a true fag hag.

Many similarities exist between our contemporary and ancestral gay hang-outs.  Just as metropolises now tend to have regions that the gay community make their own so did London.  Moorfields was one of the notable gay haunts of the city, so much so that it had a "Sodomite's Walk."  Like today, many gay men were known to refer to each other as "queens" which I personally find interesting since many female sovereigns existed at the time.  Queenly spats were also not wholly unusual either as Joseph Sellers describes from personal experience:

"As soon as we came in, Gabriel Lawrence (since hang'd for Sodomy) began to scold at Mark Patridge, calling him a vile Dog, a blowing-up Bitch and other ill Names because Partridge had blab'd out something about one Harrington's being concern'd with him in such Practice."

Oh the dramz! Don't you hate when someone has to cause a scene at the bar?

Spats could be the least of problems regulars at molly houses could have.  Sodomy was a very serious offense, punishable by death (as seen above).  Luckily, evidence was needed in order to charge someone with that offense and that could be a tricky task for the law.  Molly houses were prone to raids which famously happened to Mother Clap's house in 1726 leading to her arrest.  Thank goodness today the only raids that gay bars may suffer from would be those used to catch serving minors!

Robert Darnton talks "Blogging in the 18th Century"

When Lauren and I heard that Harvard head librarian and Cultural Historian was giving a lecture on his latest interest titled Blogging in the 18th Century we knew this was an event not to be missed.  When Dr. Darnton opened his address with, "My subject is scandalous," followed by "I hope no one under the age of sixteen is here.." it confirmed we were in the right place. 

Dr. Darnton's argument was that gossip and gossip mongering is "not as trivial as we suppose" and it should be drawn on more in our study of history, especially in times and places where the society thrived on gossip such as 16th century Italy or 18th century France and England.  Not only does petty gossip of the time tell us much about the society  and its interests but it can also reveal some little known facts about historical people which shouldn't be entirely disregarded. 

But perhaps you may be wondering where the title of the lecture came from, because obviously the Duchess of Devonshire isn't sitting at her HP desktop, in the latest hat, spreading gossip via Blogger.  The answer is a very interesting and simple one.  Blogs today, especially celebrity gossip blogs (Darnton cited PerezHilton and Gawker media) deliver their scathing gossip to masses in short paragraphs to keep readers' attention.  The same was true of the newspapers of 18th century England which delivered their printed gossip in the form of short paragraphs or anecdotes, simply stating (hopefully in a witty way) the juicy news on a public figure.  The only thing missing was pictures with coke spots drawn on their noses.  Gathering this gossip was a much simpler task that of the modern paparazzi.  "Paragraph men" would sit in coffee houses listening to all the local gossip and writing down and pieces that felt worthy for the paper.  They would then submit these scraps to the papers and get paid based on factors such as the juiciness of the gossip.  Like bloggers today, there was little pay in the affair.  Also like bloggers today, the threat of plagiarism loomed (Darnton discovered in a gossip biography the minority of the content was original) although there was no mention of whether the plagiarism actually upset its victims like it does today.  Sometimes the anecdote actually cited the source of where gossip came from, so they were essentially repeating the gossip, which reminded us much of retweets (RT) on Twitter; just another means of spreading the scandal!

I've seen Dr. Darnton is due to deliver this lecture at other locations, so if you have the opportunity to hear him speak, don't delay in taking it!  For more on this topic, Dr. Darnton has an article up on the NYR Blog.

Quotables

"I didn't yet understand the word 'fop,' but I sure wanted to be one, even if I had to cut off one of my own hands to look this dashing."

-John Waters, on his childhood fascination with Cyril Ritchard's role of Captain Hook, in his book, Role Models [excerpt here]

Lounging in Poufs and Not Much Else

The ever-wonderful Fabultastic seems to agree with my proclamation of the pouf making its comeback.  His addition to the mounting evidence is this lovely fashion shoot by photographer John Wright.  I can't tell you much about the shoot but I have the sneaking suspicion it is for underwear. My particular favorite is the last one. The model's serpentine pose (so very classic in art) gracefully reveals the finer qualities of the furniture she rests upon.  The unusual warm-gray fabric of the renaissance painting above her allows the veiwer's eye to travel up from the model and end on the classical art reference.  I can't help but enjoy a photographic romp among ancien coiffures and modern lofts.