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The Eighteenth Century Pioneers in French Costume Reform

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2010

Marvin Carlson
Marvin Carlson
Affiliation:
Marvin Carlson is Sidney Cohn Professor of Theatre and Distinguished Professor of Theatre and Comparative Literature at the Graduate Center, City University of New York.
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Extract

In the middle years of the eighteenth century a major shift took place in France concerning the idea of appropriate stage costume. The traditional dress of high classicism, with its helmets and high plumes for the men, large hoop skirts for the women, and elegant, symmetrical, and highly artificial dress for both began to be challenged by leading critics and artists, who sought—for greater realism, greater historical accuracy, or greater ease and beauty of movement on stage—a more relaxed and informal approach to stage dress.

Type
Articles
Information
Theatre Survey , Volume 28 , Issue 1 , May 1987 , pp. 37 - 47
Copyright
Copyright © American Society for Theatre Research 1987

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References

NOTES

1 E.g. the Enciclopedia dello spettacolo, 9 v. (Rome: G.C. Sansoni, 1954–62), 3:1595; Roberts, Vera Mowry, On Stage: A Hislory of the Theatre (New York: Harperand Row, 1962), p. 311.Google ScholarGrose, B.D. and Kenworth, D.F. in A Mirror to Life: The History of the Western Theatre (New York: Holt, Rineheart, Winston, 1985)Google Scholar say “Mile Clairon appeared with bare arms in a Voltaire piece” (p. 346), apparently confusing Clairon with Lekain's later appearance in Semiramis.

2 E.g. Berthold, Margot, A History of World Theatre (New York: F. Ungar, 1972), p. 485Google Scholar; Hawkins, Frederick, The French Stage in the Eighteenth Century, 2 v. (London, Chapman and Hall, 1888), 2: 42.Google Scholar

3 E.g. Hartnoll, Phyllis, The Concise History of Theatre (New York: H.N. Abrams, 1968), p. 158.Google Scholar

4 E.g. the Enciclopedia dello spettacolo, 3: 1595.

5 E.g. Brockett, Oscar, History of the Theatre (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1974), p. 281Google Scholar; Cameron, Patti Gillespieand Kenneth, Western Theatre (New York: Macmillan, 1984), p. 332.Google Scholar

6 Mercure de France, April, 1734, p. 772. All translations are my own.

7 Jullien, Adolphe, Histoire du costume au théâtre (Paris: G. Charpentier, 1880), p. 164.Google Scholar

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17 Favart, C.S., Memoires et correspondance littéraires, dramatiques, et anecdotiques, 3 v. (Paris: Collin, 1808), 1: lxxvii.Google Scholar The Vanloo painting shows all of these innovations but the bare arms, probably still too shocking for a portrait.

18 E.g. DeManne, E.D., Galerie hislorique des comediens francois de la troupe de Voltaire (Lyon: Scheuring, 1877), pp. 125–26.Google Scholar

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21 Noverre, , Lettres, p. 188.Google Scholar

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25 Mercure de France, May, 1763, p. 185.

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27 La Grande Encyclopedic 31 v. (Paris: H. Lamirault, 1886–1902), 30: 760.

28 Larousse, , Grand dictionnaire, 10: 66.Google Scholar