Incorporation of Art and Material

Une Etude De Femme D'apres Nature ( A Study of Women After Nature 1802)  According to Susan Siegfried in her essay "The Visual Culture of Fashion and the Classical Ideal in Post-Revolutionary France", this painting is a significant conjecture between neoclassical art and fashionability. The painting created by Marie-Denise Villers, symbolizes the prime function of visual and material culture's influence of the time. Siegfried claims Villers incorporation of feminine materials into high art effectively communicate social ideals practiced from 1660- 1798 (The Visual 77). Villers’s title (stemming from a historical collection) etude is defined as a study from nature.  The idea of an etude is to portray images of women in dress that stage social character. The painting is abundantly rich with suggestive connotations about the woman and who she is merging two extremes; classical figure and contemporary fashion. The woman's self-presentation is merely defined by her appearance and therefore implies her high class. The loosely draped black fabric offers the woman as a dominating figure and all audiences question who she is (status). The combination of the woman herself, her gesture, and attire offer Villers as an illustrative strategist. An oil on canvas painting, Villers acquires a translucent black fabric that is a symbol of high elegant fashion. For Villers, the treatment of fabric and color creates the modern woman.