Strolling in the Park – Paris 1820

Three figures are strolling in a park, in 1820; the height of the “Règne de Louis XVIII” as the plate announces. The final exile of Napoleon Bonaparte resulted in the restoration of Louis XVIII to the throne, bringing back the monarchy of the Bourbon. Gone are the high waistlines of Bonaparte’s Empire; instead, the waistline has dropped almost to the natural waist.

The woman on the left turns and looks directly at the viewer while the back view of her dress is shown. Her dress has a pale blue bodice that is snugly fitted and has a wide ribbon tied into a bow at the waist. The dress has a high collar with a stiff double layer of white ruffles, suggesting the ruffs worn during earlier monarchies. The dress has snug long sleeves with puffs at the upper arm. Around her shoulders is a small shawl with a pink, green, and yellow border in a pattern suggesting the Orientalist style.

Her white skirt has a double row of white ruffles in scallops around the hem. She wears a white poke bonnet trimmed with pink flowers and greenery. The man walking with her wears a long blue cutaway tailcoat which falls just below the knees. The tailcoat has two large gold buttons at the back waist and at the hem. The lapels are wide and look to be black velvet or fur. The cuffs of his sleeves reach beyond the wrist to the middle of the hand. His white high shirt collar reaches up to his jaw line and his long sideburns almost touch his collar.

He wears long white trousers, reaching just above his ankles, white stockings or spats, and low black shoes accented with small bows. He wears a black top hat and carries a crook-handled cane. The third figure in the distance wears a similar dress as the first woman. Her pale blue dress has three wide black bands at the hem, buttons down the center front of the bodice, and snug long sleeves puffed at the top that reach down over the hand. She has a triple white ruffle at the neck of her dress. Her shawl is longer than the first woman’s, and has a pink border. Her white poke bonnet is decorated with a pink feather pluime on the crown.

Credit: The Claremont Colleges