Women in veils 1880s-1930s

Pierre Auguste Renoir (French painter, 1841-1919) Madame Darras as a Horsewoman


Women have been wearing veils since at least the 13th century B.C. in Assyria. Classical Greek & Hellenistic statues sometimes depict Greek women with both their head & face covered by a veil.  Statues of Persian elite women from Persepolis show examples of some women wearing veils & some without.  Here are a few from the 19th & early 20th century, which I find fascinating.

 Emily Eastman (Loudon New Hampshire 1804-c 1841) Woman in Veil c 1825

Louis Anquetin (French artist, 1861–1932) Woman on the Champs-Elysees by Night 1890

Anders Leonard Zorn (Swedish artist, 1860-1920) In mourning, 1880

Louis Anquetin (French artist, 1861–1932) Two Woman 1892

Alice Pike Barney (American artist, 1857-1931) Self Portrait

Jozsef Rippl-Ronai (Hungarian artist, 1861-1927) Mme Mazet 1896

Mary Cassatt (American-born artist, 1844-1926) Woman Arranging Her Veil 1886

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French painter, 1841-1919), Jeune femme à la voilette

Louis Anquetin (French artist, 1861–1932) Woman with a Veil 1890

Edmund Tarbell (American painter, 1862-1938) The Blue Veil 1899

Joseph DeCamp (American artist, 1858-1923) Pink Feather Brown Veil 1908

Gustav Klimt (Austrian Symbolist painter, 1862-1918) Girl With Blue Veil, 1902

Edmund Tarbell (American painter, 1862-1938) Summer Breeze 1904

Gustave Van de Woestijne (Belgian artist, 1881-1947) Les deux printemps

Pierre Bonnard (French painter, 1867-1947) Woman in a Veil c 1917

Henri Matisse (French artist, 1919-1942)  The Spaniard 1928

Rudolf Wacker (Austrian painter, 1893 -1939) Ilse Wacker with Mask, 1925

Francis John Clarence Westenra Plantagenet Hastings (British artist 1901-1990) Untitled, 1934

 Thomas William Roberts (English-born Australian artist, 1856-1931) Portrait of Florence, 1898

Jean-Louis Forain (French artist, 1852-1931) Head of a Woman with a Veil

Henri Matisse (French artist, 1919-1942) Woman with a Veil

Alice Pike Barney (American artist, 1857–1931) Dream Book

Tamara de Lempicka (Polish Art Deco artist, Russia 1898–1980 Mexico) (Tamara Rosalia Gurwik-Gorska) La Couronne de Fleurs II, 1932

Fashion! - Pretty in pink 18C Turquerie wraps with fur trim

1740-45 George Knapton (English artist, 1698–1778) Lady Throckmorton

1760s Francis Cotes (English Painter, 1726-1770) Lady Henrietta Godolphin, Duchess of Newcastle

1770 after Joshua Reynolds (English artist, 1723–1792) Portrait of a Lady

 1770s Francis Cotes (English Painter, 1726-1770) Portrait Of A Lady, Said To Be Henrietta Conyers

1771 Joshua Reynolds (English artist, 1723–1792)  Mrs Thomas Watkinson Payler

1775 Jakob Emanuel Handmann (Swiss artist, 1718-1781)  Unknown lady

1775 Jakob Emanuel Handmann (Swiss artist, 1718-1781) Lady in Turkish dress

 Joshua Reynolds (English artist, 1723–1792) Charlotte Grenville and her children

1770s  Jakob Emanuel Handmann (Swiss artist, 1718-1781) Philippine Fellenberg

Fashion! - 18C Hints of Turquerie from Austrian Johann Baptist Lampi the Elder 1751-1830

Johann Baptist Lampi the Elder (Austrian painter, 1751-1830) Portrait of Jekaterina Samojlowa 1792-96


Giovanni Battista Lampi the Elder was born in Austria to fresco painter Matteo (Mattia) Lampi.  The young artist studied art under his father in Verona, & later in Salzburg. In 1773, he left his father's teaching to travel to Trento to study portraiture. He traveled next to Innsbruck; and then to Vienna, where the Emperor Joseph II appointed him a professor at the Vienna Academy in 1786. Later that same year, he was invited to Warsaw by the court of King Stanisław August Poniatowski.  He decided to stay & worked in Warsaw until the final partition of Poland.  In 1791, he moved to St. Petersburg, enticed by a hereditary knighthood offered by the Czar. In Russia he devoted himself to portrait painting.

Johann Baptist Lampi the Elder (Austrian painter, 1751-1830) Empress of Russia Catherine the Great (Sophie Fredericke Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst 1729-96) dressed for a masquerade

 Johann Baptist Lampi the Elder (Austrian painter, 1751-1830) Portrait of Countess Natalia Alexandrovna Suvarova (1775-1844) 1795

Johann Baptist Lampi the Elder (Austrian painter, 1751-1830) Aloysia Webber c. 1780

 Johann Baptist Lampi the Elder (Austrian  painter, 1751-1830) Teréz Brunszvik de Korompa (Therese Countess von Brunsvik or Brunswick, 1775-1861)

 Johann Baptist Lampi the Elder (Austrian painter, 1751-1830) Kordula Potocka 1790

Johann Baptist Lampi the Elder (Austrian painter, 1751-1830) 1793 Countess Catherine Stroganova

Fashion! - A little Polish Turquerie from Kazimir Wojniakowski 1772 -1812

 Kazimir Wojniakowski (Polish artist, 1772 -1812) Maria Theresa Poniatowska


Kazimierz Wojniakowski was a Polish painter & a pupil of Marcello Bacciarelli. His work as a portraitist was influenced by that of the Polish painter Józef Grassi.  Wojniakowski also produced religious works & scenes of contemporary historic events.

 Kazimir Wojniakowski (Polish artist, 1772 -1812) Izabela Czartoryska

1790s Kazimir Wojniakowski (Polish artist, 1772 -1812) Portrait of a Lady

Fashion! - Hugh Barron 1747-1791 paints a little blue & white Turquerie

Hugh Barron (British artist, 1747-1791)  Portrait of a lady, said to be Susanna, Mrs Bacon Bedingfield of Ditchingham Hall, Norfolk


Hugh Barron was the son of an apothecary in Soho, London.  The young artist became a pupil of Sir Joshua Reynolds. After leaving Reynolds' studio, he set off for Italy, by way of Lisbon, where he stopped for some time & painted portraits. In 1771-2, he was in Rome. Returning to London, he settled in Leicester Square, & exhibited some portraits at the Royal Academy in 1782-3 & 1786.

Hugh Barron (British artist, 1747-1791) Elizabeth Mrs. John Plampin Dau of Henry Hervey Ashton c 1766

Hugh Barron (British artist, 1747-1791) Portrait of a lady in blue, c 1778

Fashion! - Jean-Baptiste Le Prince 1734-1781 paints Turquerie

Jean-Baptiste Le Prince (French Painter, 1734-1781) Young woman in Turkish costume


Born to a family of ornamental sculptors & gilders, Le Prince began studying art with Francois Boucher (1703–70) around 1750. In 1754, the young artist traveled to Italy.  By 1757, Le Prince was painting for Catherine the Great at the Imperial Palace in Saint Petersburg. He traveled extensively in Russia, Lithuania, Finland, Holland, & perhaps Siberia, returning to Paris 5 years later eager to make a name for himself.  The sketches Le Prince made on his travels of exotic costumes & customs served him well, when he returned to France in 1763.  He became a copper engraver, & a genre, landscape & portrait painter. He is also credited with being the first artist to introduce aquatint into his etched & engraved plates. Upon becoming a member of the Académie Royale in 1765, Le Prince exhibited 15 paintings at that year's Salon, all Russian subjects.  The drawings he made in Russia provided the basis for a considerable body of work that added to the general taste of 18th century Europeans for exotica.   After 1770, Le Prince's health declined, & he left Paris for the French countryside.  There he painted the pastoral subjects; which he had learned from Boucher as a young man & from the 17th-century Dutch & Flemish genre & landscape painters, which he so admired.

Jean-Baptiste Le Prince (French Painter, 1734-1781) Lady in Turkish Dress

Jean-Baptiste Le Prince (French Painter, 1734-1781) The Fortune Teller

Fashion! - Swiss artist Jakob Emanuel Handmann 1718-1781 paints Turquerie

Jakob Emanuel Handmann (Swiss artist, 1718-1781)  Unknown lady 1775


Jakob Emanuel Handmann was the 9th child of Johann Jakob Handmann, a baker in Waldenburg, & his wife Anna Maria Rispach. Between 1735 & 1739, he apprenticed in Schaffhausen with the painter & stucco plasterer Johann Ulrich Schnetzler. The young artist then traveled to Paris, Rome & Naples. In Paris, he worked at the studio of Jean Restout II. In 1742, Handmann worked in France with Hörling Handmann painting the heads of the sitters. Later he worked in the studios of Marco Benefial & Pierre Subleyras in Rome. There he produced commercial copies of masterpieces from the Classical Antiquity & Renaissance periods.  By June 1746, he was back in Switzerland; and in 1747, he settled down in Basel, where he opened his own studio.

Jakob Emanuel Handmann (Swiss artist, 1718-1781) Philippine Fellenberg

Jakob Emanuel Handmann (Swiss artist, 1718-1781) Lady in Turkish dress 1775

Jakob Emanuel Handmann (Swiss artist, 1718-1781) Catherine Augusta Lerber Sturler