The Fashions of the Day – or Time Past and Time Present: The Year (1740) a Lady's Full Dress of Bombazeen – The Year (1808) Lady's Undress of Bum-be-seen

Anonymous, Irish, 19th century

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

An Irish publisher pirated this print from a design issued in London. Title and image contrast contemporary taste for revealing classically inspired frocks with more modest historical styles. Low-necked, high-waisted dresses made of nearly translucent white muslin became fashionable in France in the late 1790s, were introduced to Britain shortly afterward, and held sway through the early Regency period. Since these frocks were often worn over minimal undergarments, the form of the wearer’s body could be revealed by sunlight, wind, or rain–to the delight of satirical printmakers. Here, a well-covered lady from 1740 wears a gown made out of bombazine (a sturdy twilled fabric) over stiff stays. She is startled to encounter a young woman from 1808 whose derriere is displayed through her gown as the result of simply standing in a strong light.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art