Several recent exhibitions have explored the link between great painters and the fashion of their day. In 2024 Tate Britain exhibited late 19th- and early 20th-century garments in the same galleries as paintings by John Singer Sargent, and earlier this year the Frick Collection considered what the art of Thomas Gainsborough tells us about 18th-century fashion. Now the Musée Ingres Bourdelle in Montauban is honouring the town’s most famous son by exploring how changes in fashion can be traced through his paintings (3 July–8 November). For all his ambitions as a painter of historical scenes, Ingres was most sought-after as a portraitist. His portraits capture his sitters’ delight in the new textiles coming to France from overseas, including cashmere and muslin, and their love of homegrown materials such as silk and velour. The curators also include posters, sales catalogues and etchings to give us a sense of how rapidly the market for clothing evolved in Ingres’s lifetime (1780–1867).
Find out more from the Musée Ingres Bourdelle’s website.
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