UC Riverside UC Riverside Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
UC Riverside UC Riverside Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Undressed: Undergarments as Cultural Limina in Eighteenth-Century France Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/64d1d4r3 Author Pfiefer, Emily Catherine Publication Date 2014 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE Undressed: Undergarments as Cultural Limina in Eighteenth-Century France A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History by Emily Catherine Pfiefer December 2014 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Randolph Head, Chairperson Dr. Heidi Brevik-Zender Dr. Thomas Cogswell Dr. Dana Simmons Copyright by Emily Catherine Pfiefer 2014 The Dissertation of Emily Catherine Pfiefer is approved: Committee Chairperson University of California, Riverside ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would not have been able to complete this doctoral dissertation without the help and support of the generous people around me. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my advisor, Dr. Randy Head, for his excellent guidance, caring, and wisdom. His support and enthusiasm for my study was a continual source of motivation. The advice and insights of my dissertation committee members, Dr. Heidi Brevik-Zender, Dr. Tom Cogswell, and Dr. Dana Simmons, have been invaluable on both an academic and a personal level, for which I am extremely grateful. A special thanks to Heidi for her friendship and for including me in her museum visits and dinner parties in Paris. Many thanks to all of my fellow graduate students and friends—those who have moved on as well as those who continue to persevere in their studies. A special thanks to Muey Saeteurn whose great friendship and emotional support sustained me through many an educational and personal quagmire. Jillian Azevedo and Stephanie Wilms Simpson have been great friends and allies on our journey toward the doctorate. I appreciate academic and financial support I received from a variety of sources. The awards of a Graduate Dean's Dissertation Research Grant from the University of California, Riverside’s Graduate Council and a Humanities Graduate Student Research Grant from the Center for Ideas and Society at the University of California, Riverside made it possible for me to undertake my research in France. My research in France was enriched by frequent conversations over coffee with Steve Zdatny after long days at the B.N. and insights from other generous academics including Judith Miller and Daryl iv Hafter. Additionally, the award of a Gimon Collection Visiting Scholar Fellowship at the Stanford University libraries provided me with access to indispensable sources and allowed me to benefit from the insights of Sarah Sussman and several graduate students. Above all, I would like to thank my family. This project would have never come to fruition without my parents who pushed me and supported me through it all—my dad, Richard, without whom I never would have started on this journey and my mom, Susan, who was both confidante and research assistant. I am grateful to my husband, Glendon Lee, who put up with my complaints and encouraged me to continue when I wanted to give up. Finally, my little Amelia, who arrived before this project was done and who spent much of her first few months “helping” me write. v For my Dad, the first Dr. Pfiefer vi ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Undressed: Undergarments as Cultural Limina in Eighteenth-Century France by Emily Catherine Pfiefer Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Program in History University of California, Riverside, December 2014 Dr. Randolph C. Head, Chairperson In the sixteenth century, few Europeans wore undergarments; by the nineteenth century, undergarments were commonplace. This change came about through the invention, production, and adoption of a new form of clothing, closely connected to changing concepts of the body as well as evolving social codes of consumption, hygiene, and class. Over the course of the eighteenth century, the people of Europe, and particularly of France, developed an obsession with undergarments. Full court dress began to lose its appeal, and by the end of the century, Queen Marie Antoinette shocked the nation with her Gaulle, an informal gown made to look like an undergarment itself. Through a multitude of sources and interdisciplinary methods of analysis, this study presents an interpretation of undergarments as the limina between public and private, as well as the locus in where changing concepts of the body played out over the long eighteenth century. By analyzing ideas about undergarments and their relationships with the body and society in comparison with social and individual conceptions and uses of undergarments, this study illuminates cultural concepts of outer and under in addition vii to notions of public and private. Similarly, by interpreting ideas about the outer and under and the role of undergarments for personal, individual use versus public, social use, this study probes evolving concepts of private and public in eighteenth-century France. By incorporating personal sensibilities about undergarments with social and cultural analyses of undergarments as material goods, this project contributes to studies of material culture and material life, as well as to understandings of the body and its relationship with material goods and society. Hence, this study, with its systematic, cultural approach provides a new, historical conceptualization of undergarments, so long unmentionable, as they emerged in the eighteenth century. viii CONTENTS FIGURES ............................................................................................................................ x INTRODUCTION: Undressing the Eighteenth Century .................................................... 1 1. A Century of Undress ................................................................................................ 25 2. Propreté and Santé ..................................................................................................... 77 3. Consuming Corsets and Culture .............................................................................. 127 4. Lingerie Larceny ...................................................................................................... 166 5. CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................... 194 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................... 208 ix FIGURES FIGURE 0.1. LOUISE ÉLISABETH VIGÉE LE BRUN, MARIE ANTOINETTE, 1783, PRIVATE COLLECTION. ..................................................................................................................................... 2 FIGURE 0.2. POCKET, C. 1784, METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART. ............................................... 20 FIGURE 0.3. ENGAGEANTES, 1770, METROPOLITAN MUSEM OF ART. ......................................... 20 FIGURE 1.1. GRAND HABIT, C. 1770, VERSAILLES. ............................................................................ 29 FIGURE 1.2. RHINEGRAVES, C.1650. ...................................................................................................... 31 FIGURE 1.3. SUIT, 1760-1770, MANCHESTER GALLERIES. ................................................................ 31 FIGURE 1.4. COSTUME PARISIEN, CULOTTE DE PANTALONS, 1803. ............................................. 31 FIGURE 1.5. MANTUA, 1708, METROPOLITAN MUSEM OF ART. ..................................................... 33 FIGURE 1.6. SHIRT, 1750-1800, VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM. ............................................... 38 FIGURE 1.7. WOMAN'S CHEMISE, THIRD QUARTER 18TH CENTURY, THE METROPOLITAIN MUSEUM OF ART. ............................................................................................................................ 38 FIGURE 1.8. CORPS À BALEINE, C. 1735, MUSÉE DES ARTS DECORATIFS. .................................. 40 FIGURE 1.9. STOMACHER, C. 1720, THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART. ............................. 40 FIGURE 1.10. ROBE À LA FRANÇAISE, 1765–70, METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART................. 41 FIGURE 1.11. ROBE À L'ANGLAISE, 1740–60, METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART. ..................... 41 FIGURE 1.12. ROBE À LA POLONAISE, 1780–85, METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART................. 41 FIGURE 1.13. DRESS, 1790S, METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART. ................................................... 41 FIGURE 1.14. 18TH CENTURY UNDERGARMENTS, C. 1750-80, LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART. ............................................................................................................................ 43 FIGURE 1.15. SIDE HOOP, 1778, VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM............................................... 44 FIGURE 1.16. STAYS AND QUILTED PETTICOAT, 18TH CENTURY, METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART. .............................................................................................................................................. 47 FIGURE 1.17. GAULLE, OR CHEMISE A LA REINE, 1783-1790, MANCHESTER GALLERIES. ...... 52 x FIGURE 3.1. DRESS (SIDE VIEW), FRENCH, PRINTED COTTON, 1750–75, METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART. AN EXAMPLE OF TOILE INDIENNE. ........................................................ 135 FIGURE 3.2. FRANÇOIS BOUCHER, LA MARCHANDE DE MODES, 1746, NATIONALMUSEUM, STOCKHOLM. ................................................................................................................................