Incroyables and merveilleuses

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Engraving by Charles Vernet on Frankenthal porcelain, from 1797

The Incroyables and Merveilleuses (the Incredibles and the Marvelous) were Parisian citizens who dressed extremely conspicuously during a brief period of the French Revolution . They were partly identical to the Jeunesse dorée .

The French Revolution began in 1789, the reign of terror of Maximilien de Robespierre ended in 1794, followed by the time of the Directoire (1795–1799). The citizens of France now had greater freedom again. These were used by a class of the nouveau riche to appear through particularly eye-catching clothing. They exaggerated their fashion, even their pronunciation, so much that all of Paris laughed at them and ridiculed them with satirical writings, songs and caricatures. As blonde wigs were previously banned, they now wore them as a special expression of their anti-attitude. They called themselves Incroyables et les Merveilleuses.

The fashion

When citizens from Paris first wore this grotesque clothing and when this fashion became out of fashion is not known from documents, probably from 1795. Antoine Charles Horace Vernet , 1758–1836, a French painter, mainly depicted the battles of Napoleon. He also drew contemporary ones Morals of cultural and historical value. The engraving, created in 1797, as a painting template on Frankenthal porcelain , shows the demonstratively exaggerated Stutzer from the Directoire period. They consciously set themselves apart from the usual revolutionary and empirical fashion. They also cultivated idiosyncratic language. It was based on the dialect of Roussilion, which has the consonants r., D. and l. so they called themselves Inc-oyables and Me-veilleuses.

The gentlemen were called "Les Incroyables", the unbelievable. They caricatured the ideal of bourgeois clothing by wearing tight trousers that reached to the chest and high hussar boots. Her tailcoat had a high collar, an extremely short top and long laps. Several vests of different types and colors were worn underneath. Particularly noticeable was an oversized collar that often covered the entire chin. The Incroyable wore its hair "en oreilles de chien", like shaggy dog ​​hair. His entire appearance was rather grotesque.

Engraving by Charles Vernet, painted on Frankenthal porcelain, from 1797

Some wore large monocles or glasses, lisped and hunched over. The knot, a twisted vine, was part of the equipment.

The ladies of this fashion trend, "Les Merveilleuses" (the wonderful ones), dressed themselves up particularly noticeably. They attracted special attention mainly through their freedom of movement, exaggeration of hats and hairstyles. A belt accentuated the high waist of the very airy dresses, the hair was short, and blonde wigs were preferred.

The fashionable escapade from France was also painted on porcelain from a well-known porcelain manufacturer of the 18th century. It cannot be proven whether the parts were intended exclusively for the French market. Since porcelain tableware was more likely to be acquired by the wealthy population at that time, one must assume that this clothing was worn by a class of society that could afford the fashion financially. The poorer population, still suffering from the effects of the French Revolution, certainly had no access to fashionable escapades.

Representative

literature

  • Annemarie Kleinert: The early fashion journals in France . E. Schmidt, Berlin 1980, ISBN 3-503-01614-7
  • Claus Reimann: Les Incroyables et les Merveilleuses. In: Keramos. Journal of the Society of Ceramic Friends V. Dusseldorf , Issue 217, May 2012, ISSN  from 0453 to 7580 , Issue table of contents and the first page of the article (PDF)
  • Rolf Reichardt (Ed.): Handbook of political and social basic concepts in France 1680-1820 . H. 16/18: Femme . Oldenbourg, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-486-56130-8
  • Gudrun Gersmann, Hubertus coal: The directoire in history and art history. Literature review. In: The Eighteenth Century. Communications from the German Society for Research in the 18th Century , 16 (1992), pp. 61–70, ub.uni-heidelberg.de (PDF)

Web links

Commons : Incroyables et merveilleuses  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A. Kleinert: The early fashion journals in France , Berlin 1980, p. 124
  2. ^ Incroyable . In: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon . 4th edition. Volume 8, Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1885–1892, p. 911.
  3. ↑ Merveilleuse, la . In: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon . 4th edition. Volume 11, Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1885–1892, p. 503.
  4. ↑ C. Reimann. In: Keramos issue 217, July 2012, p. 217 ff.