Year: 2021
Type: other
Abstract: The height of the plumage industry intersected with the rise of the Impressionist movement, and this chapter examines the ways in which a leading member of that informal community, Edgar Degas, engaged with an iconography of plumage. It focuses on the artist's pastel, At the Milliner's , a work that is among his most innovative treatments of a millinery subject and that has been viewed as emblematic of a new Parisian culture of commodity fetishism. The history of ostrich plumage falls within a large international context and one that was impacted by colonial competition between France and Britain. The ostrich plumes that Degas represented in At the Milliner's almost came to Paris from Africa, which was the overwhelming supplier for European market. The plumage industry was transformed by start of ostrich farming, leading to an exponential increase in the supply of plumage. The plumed hat was the result of a transnational network of production and consumption.
Author: Simon Kelly
Language: English
Subfield: Museology
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
OpenAlex ID: W4200563279