The daily national Whig. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1847-1849, 1847-10-15

We pass over Hogarth UNREASONABLE as is his
authority for portions and details of woman's dress
we see It rather subsevient to his particular in
tenon, and that intention one of singing out parti-
cular characteristics, than indicative of the ave-
rage appearance of society. Hogarth dressed his
women doubtless strictly in the fashion of the day
but still always strictly for his own purposes They
are always oglng, leering, scolding or simpering,
and the dress doing the same Neither would we
have painted costume, nor the Spectator written up
on II, had not that which fell under their notice been
rather the novelty than the order of the day. Ho-
garth dealt in extremes His costumes can be equal
y all that's modest all that is bold; and of course
he was right, for Hogarh will find both in any age
or garb. He would have made Lely's loose undress
look modest, or Hobeins rigid covering impudent,
if il had suited his purpose; but this does not tell us
how far the general character of the dress of that time
was expressive of either.
We leap ut once TO him who has done more than
any one else to yndicae the art of portrait painting
as indigenous TO our countrywide started it afresh
from its lehargy, and recovered it from its errors
placed himsefat once above all his countrymen who
have preceded him, and has remained above all who
had followed. Like Holbein and Vandyke, Sir JOS
hua put his stamp upon the times; or rather, like n
true artist and philosopher he took that aggregate
impression which the times gave. Each has doubt
this is not our argument Each has also made his
sitters what the costume OF the time contributed to
make them. If Vandyke's women are dignified and
lofty, il is his doing for he digniied and lofty
in all his compositions if they also childish and
trivial is the accident Of the costume; for he was
never either in his other pictures If Reynolds sit
icrs are all simple earnest and SOBER it is because he
was the artist, for he was so in all he touched if
they are also stately, refined, and intellectual it
the effect of the costume, for he was not in his
other conceptions For instance, Lady st. Asaph
with her infant, lolling on couch, in loose tum-
bled dress with her feet doubled under her. is sober
and respectable looking-in spite OF dress and posi-
ton. Mrs. Hope, in an enormous cabbage of a cap,
with her hair over her eyes is blowsy and vulgar in
spite of Reynolds '.. "'.
To our view the average costume of Sir Joshua
was excessively beautiful We go through gallery
of his portraits with feelings of intense satisfaction
that there should have been race of women who
could dress so decorously, so intellectually, and
witha 50 becomingy. Not bit of the costume
appeals to any of the baser instincts There is no.
thing 10 catch the vulgar or fix the vicious All is
pure, noble, serene, benevolent. They seem as if
they would care for nothing we could offer them, il
our deepest reverence were not with it. We stand
before them like Satan before Eve stupidity good,
ready to abjure all the faacies of the Fathers all the
maxms of the moderns-ready to eat their own
words if they disapproved them-careless what may
have been the name fame, family or fortune, of
such lofty and lovely creaturesyca careless of their
very beauty for the soul that shines through it. And
then TO think that they are all deadl .s
The mere inventory is soon given. An enormous
pile Of powdered hair rising with easy curve d.
rect from the forehead, and ascending story upon
story with jewels feathers inermxed or scarf
carelessy wound round it, The dress fitting close
nIa tnh II, ell.
front The sleeves tight and finishing at the elbow
with deep double or treble rutflcs. The waist long
and small, with rich girdle slung around it. The
skirt descending in heavy folds much the same as in
the Vandyke portraits, or tucked up round the waist
in coquettish pufis, showing rich petticoat un-
derneath. Sometimes graceful upper robe with
collar and acings Of ermine entirely open in front,
and held on apparently only by the loose sleeves
| through which the arms passed. Plenty of rich
aces, edge edge up the throat for the old,
irl round the throat for the elderly--no tags or
trumpery, or reliance small manoeuvrcs, but all
| in good large masses and continuous lines.
But the refined and intellectual side of this COS.
tune is not so easily described This first resides
especially in the shoulders and bust which, owing
perhaps to the superintendent weight of the head
bend slightly forward with neffabe grace showing
US plain possible the flat well shaped back we
do Beautifully does the dress sit round this
portion of the figure, clngng closely rather than fit.
ting tightly with none of that stuffed appearance toe
common in our modern beles-(who seem as if they
took the shape of their dresses and not rersa-as i
they were cast into them like metals into mould
but breaking into thousand easy Fuckers and folds
| us if the dress followed the sweet windings of the
! form in its own free way, rather than strained
| tight TO display tive have said it long and
small--but should not know where it was at all
but for those easy lines which wrap round it, and fol
that rich girdle which has slipped down naturally tc
the smallest part. Then the high make of the dress
on the shoulders has peculiar refinement, giving
that vestalke narrowness to this part of the person
which conveys the idea of feminine deicacy anc
elasticity, rather than of masculine width anc
strength the chest, however, not contracted, Blu
showing its free rise be the graceful oval with which
| the line of the dress dips across it. Lightly does
this portion of the figure rise from the spreading dra
perry below, like urn from its pedestal and lightly
does it carry that ponderous head dress above us L
its acton steadied but not encountered by the
weight. ...., .f ,.
In this high headdress lies the intellect of the pic
ture, and thousand other charms. Wherever we
sec the upward line of the forehead continued whe
Their in the grandes specimen of ancient art tho
commonest costume Of peasant life, we feel that
mental dignity s given to the whole person. 1t is
the idea of elevation in the part where by nature II
is most noble which conveys this impression. A
woman thus costumed looksa High Priestcss dcdi.
Gated TO noble things. This is especially the
ease when il is the hair itself which gives this height
to the head For, ofal the weapons Of beauty which
woman possesses for good for evil it is her hair
in which lies most of the expression Of either Ii is
the low head with loose wandering tresses more
than any feature Of the dress undress, which, from
the days of the syrens of mythology to those Of
Charles HIS glorious gallery, has most undeniaby
revealed the Dalilah. Gather them up, or conceal
them under hood, and the woman is reformed. On
this account very long loose flowing hair is only suit
able for children or very young girls. Awoman with
her hair her shoulders nfalibly looks untdy, OF
something worse.
What countenance is there also which does not i'm
prove with the uncovering Of the forehead mot pro-
| truding bare and bald, when the hair is tightly
drawn back from il, which few stand, but rearing
itself up like grand pillar beneath lofty parapet
receiving shelter in return for yielding support and
looking firm and stately as if able to bear that any
thing else In the world we might like to put upon it,
But II is not much the forehead alone as parti-
cuar part oft, for which VIC recommend this Golf