L'étoffe des Flamands
Museum de Tessé, Le Mans, FR
22.10.2022 - 29.01.2023
© Ville du Mans
The museum de Tessé presents the exhibition "The stuff of the Flemish, fashion and painting in the seventeenth century" from October 22, 2022 to January 29, 2023. Through the diversity of the themes addressed, it offers a new approach to costume and its evocation by northern schools.
The Fine Arts museums of Le Mans, Angers and Tours are joining forces to offer, from the Nordic painting collections of these three museums, an exhibition devoted to the dialogue between fashion and painting in the Netherlands in the 17th century. .
The course addresses, in a very broad way, social, commercial, economic and even philosophical questions specific to the Netherlands of that time. Clothing and fashion are not considered solely from the point of view of the history of forms but studied as an expression of the issues specific to Dutch society in the 17th century.
The exhibition questions the relationship to clothing maintained not only by the elites but also by the more modest social classes, by studying their modes of production, marketing and consumption in 17th century Dutch society. Particular emphasis is also placed on three "local" industries linked to textile production, which flourished particularly during the period, and which enjoyed considerable commercial success internationally.
- Lace,
- flax, especially in Haarlem,
- the woolen cloth, in Leyden.
Re-enactments
Due to the extreme rarity of the original pieces, and to understand the arrangement of the clothes, two very faithful modern replicas of a man's suit and a woman's suit, around 1625, were made for the exhibition by Sébastien Passot, The Sincere Tailor.
Partnerships
A strong orientation in favor of the partnership on the scale of the territory was given to this project, which is based on old links maintained with nearby institutions, the museums of Fine Arts of Tours and Angers.
In a desire to showcase the Nordic collections, a selection of works chosen around the theme of fashion and costume from the collections of the three partner museums constitutes the common core of a three-step project. Thus, three exhibitions with various contours are proposed, on the following dates, enriched for the Le Mans and Angers stages with different and complementary external loans.
- From October 22, 2022 to January 29, 2023, at the Tessé museum, in Le Mans,
- From June 9 to October 2, 2023, at the Museum of Fine Arts in Tours,
- From June to September 2024, at the Museum of Fine Arts in Angers.
More information: L'étoffe des Flamands - Ville du Mans (lemans.fr)
Ce portrait de groupe par Pieter Soutman représente une riche famille de Haarlem. Saisis dans des attitudes très naturelles, les modèles nous donnent à voir comment on se mouvait dans ces vêtements peu commodes, notamment avec les contraignantes fraises – qui en 1630 allaient d’ailleurs très rapidement passer de mode. Les parents ont revêtu des tenues formelles noires, habituelles dans les portraits des bourgeois. Les enfants et les servantes permettent de voir des tenues colorées plus informelles peu représentées d'ordinaire.
© Christian Jean - RMN-Grand Palais
Ce portrait de groupe par Pieter Soutman représente une riche famille de Haarlem. Saisis dans des attitudes très naturelles, les modèles nous donnent à voir comment on se mouvait dans ces vêtements peu commodes, notamment avec les contraignantes fraises – qui en 1630 allaient d’ailleurs très rapidement passer de mode. Les parents ont revêtu des tenues formelles noires, habituelles dans les portraits des bourgeois. Les enfants et les servantes permettent de voir des tenues colorées plus informelles peu représentées d'ordinaire.
© Christian Jean - RMN-Grand Palais
This young woman proudly wears many laces, which adorn the edge of her shirt and in the form of a wide band accentuating the horizontality of the silhouette. She also wears an almost transparent "gorgerette", a piece of fine cambric lingerie that covers the neckline. Laces, in silk or linen thread, were extremely expensive accessories. Very fashionable in the 17th century, they came mainly from Italy and Flanders.
© David Riou - Museums of Angers
© Sébastien Passot - Le Tailleur sincère