French Woman and Two Children – 1914

A mother and her two children model their Parisian fashions for 1914. The mother wears a long, sleeveless beige dress in silk crèpe de chine, with loose folds falling from its white jewel neckline. The dress is loosely belted at the waist and has an overall leaf pattern in white. A small child sits in the mother’s lap and wears a white jumper (or dress) with short sleeves and a square bodice with three black buttons; white strapped shoes complete her outfit. The child reaches for a plate of nuts or candy that is held out by a small girl who wears an ankle-length crèpe de chine dress in solid blue with inset square patches of white with blue flowers.

Her dress has short sleeves and a jewel neckline, and she wears white strapped shoes. The family is placed in a sitting room that has the organic theme of the Arts and Crafts movement of the period. The wall paper has vertical bands of leaves which complement the patterns of the clothing. A square brown pillow with a red and beige leaf pattern and one tassel sits on the ground next to a brown puppy who stares intently at a ball. The mother sits on a small sofa or love seat which is upholstered with green and black vertical stripes.

The bottom of an image of the moon, or a stylized round design, hangs on the wall in a bold black frame, and a floral-patterned blue dish overflowing with fruit and grapes hangs below. Two pictures with sketchy gray objects are on either side. The woman and both children have short cropped hair with bangs. This illustration belongs to a series of stylized drawings signed by “mfn,” entitled Costumes Parisiens for the Journal des dames.

Credit: The Claremont Colleges