Dress

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Just a decade after the French Directiore period and the year the Empire was established, this classic Empire silhouette would have been preferred by Empress Josephine. Most portraits of the empress show her in white, the color Napolean preferred her to wear. Ingres often painted women in white; in 1806 his vision in white of Mademoiselle Rivière appeared at the Salon.

The Costume Institute

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Costume Institute's collection of more than thirty-three thousand objects represents seven centuries of fashionable dress and accessories for men, women, and children, from the fifteenth century to the present.

Metropolitan Museum of Art