ALL THE DRAMA OF DOWNTON ABBEY

With the recent news that filming of a movie spin-off of Downton Abbey will begin next year, specialist Laura H. Mathis explores five works offered in our 19th Century European Art sale with themes evocative of our favourite period drama

Sumptuous interiors and high fashion

What’s a period drama without a sumptuous interior and a fabulous dress? Like many 19th-century French artists, Jacques-Émile Blanche (1861-1942) was captivated by contemporary fashion.

While Blanche’s 1884 painting Henriette Chabot au piano  features a type of dress popular a generation before those worn by Downton’s young heroines, Lady Mary and Lady Sybil, it was no less fashionable in its day. The elegant white chiffon dress, embellished with a ruffled bodice, is embroidered with a geometric black-and-white pattern that repeats on the cuffs, collar and skirt hem. The sheer sleeves were particularly à la mode.

Lucy Prévost-Paradol, daughter of the French ambassador to Washington, brought the dress to France from America in 1873, when she came to live with Blanche. The artist painted Henriette Chabot in this dress several times — for him, it clearly evoked the modern aesthetic that was all the rage in contemporary painting. Her simple black ribbon choker, the stacked rings on her right hand, and the expensively furnished room speak to the richness of life for the fashion-forward Belle Époque  woman. She certainly seems like a woman who, like the Dowager Countess of Grantham, doesn’t know the meaning of ‘weekend’……………………

http://www.christies.com/features/Paintings-with-all-the-drama-of-Downton-8629-1.aspx?sc_lang=en&cid=EM_EMLcontent04144A08C_1&cid=DM132040&bid=108801575#FID-8629