Style Imitating Art: Redouté’s Roses

About Style Imitating Art…

Style Imitating Art comes from Salazar, Terri, and Shelbee. Please visit each blog to see their SIA looks. You can think of it as fashion meets art museum! Style Imitating Art challenges people to find inspiration in different art works, create looks based upon that art work, and share them with the curator for that piece. Every other Monday one of the three selects an inspiration piece of art and posts the image on their blog. They then invite others to interpret that art work through their style. The following Monday, they share their outfits. The curator shares submissions the following Wednesday on her blog. Terri chose this week’s art work. If you’d like, you can read why she chose it here. You can see a few of my looks here, here, here, and here!

Inspiration art works…

About the artist…

Pierre-Joseph Redouté was born in Saint-Hubert, in the Belgian Luxembourg, on July 10, 1759. Unlike many of the other artists covered in this series, Redouté was never formally educated as a painter. Both his father and grandfather were artists while his brother, Antoine Ferdinand, was an interior decorator. From the age of 13, Redouté was on his own, painting interior decorations, portraits, and religious commissions. In 1782, Redouté was in Paris working with his brother on theatrical productions.

A little more…

In time, Redouté would meet up with two botanists, Charles Louis L’Héritier de Brutelle and René Louiche Desfontaines. These two convinced Redouté to pursue botanical illustration. L’Héritier taught him to dissect flowers in order to be more precise in his work. Eventually, L’Héritier would introduce him to Marie Antoinette at the court of Versailles. With the queen as his patron, Redouté became the Draughtsman and Painter to the Queen’s Cabinet. Following the French Revolution, Joséphine Bonaparte, the Empress of France, as well as Napoleon’s second wife, Marie Louise were his patrons. In 1825,Redouté was named a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour.

Still more…

Once Redouté began his tutelage under L’Héritier and Desfontaines, his artistry definitely revolved around botanical specimens. Redouté painted from live plants rather than specimens. Because he had dissected the plants, Redouté knew exactly what went where. In addition to being a court favorite, Redouté also worked with other botanists and contributed to publications of plants from France, Japan, America, South Africa, and Australia. In addition to his work for various publications and institutions, Redouté painted many plants at the Château de Malmaison, the home of Empress Joséphine. Over time, Redouté produced more than 2,100 published plates of botanical studies. Redouté passed on either June 19 or 20, 1840, painting right up until his death. His works scattered over the years with many being handed down through royal blood lines. Some of those works have never been seen again, and their whereabouts are unknown. In 1985, 468 leaves were purchased for $5.5 million at an art auction.

About the art works…

Terri’s choice came from a book she received many years ago. I’ll bet that book is a treasure and is quite gorgeous! These particular artworks were the result of stipple engraving. This “involved engraving a copper plate with a dense grid of dots that could be modulated to convey delicate gradations of color. Because the ink rested on the paper in miniscule dots, it did not obscure the ‘light’ of the paper beneath the color. After this complicated printing process was complete, the prints were finished by hand in watercolor (source).” You can buy what I can only assume is a print and not the original of the lower right corner print for $11,000! It measures 13.75 x 10 inches (34.9 x 25.4 cm) as does one similar at the top left corner. That one is a mere $8,500. I think I would rather have Terri’s book so I can look at many different roses!

My interpretation…

Welp! Just as I thought…this wasn’t a slam dunk of a fashion challenge for me. I thought I had lots of rose printed clothing, but in perusing my options, I found I didn’t! That’s surprising given my love for all things floral! I did find this gorgeous skirt from April Cornell. It is one of my favorites and is well over 15 years old. I wore this teaching but usually went with an ivory sweater and shell. I still have both of those, but I decided to go another route. I’m not 100% sure it worked, though. I had a couple of options in the lavender and blue colors, but I decided to go with the greens in the skirt. Both the cardigan and striped tank are from Talbots and are old. In fact, this striped tank has shown up in multiple design challenges. I wish they’d come out with some more of them. I used the Instagram hack to create a waistline as mine seems to have gone on vacation!

The Lewk!

These Jack Rogers sandals have appeared on the blog a few times (here). They are different from the classic Jack Rogers sandal in that they have a slight wedge heel. I got them wet a few years ago, luckily, and they shrank around my foot! Prior to that, they were not the easiest things to walk in. The jewelry is all old and is Kendra Scott. You know what they say about hindsight? Well, it also applies to photos on blogs! If I’d only realized that large pendant ended up creating this weird illusion that my cardigan was gaping in an unfortunate spot! Oh, well! As the French (and maybe Belgians) say, “C’est la vie!”

Wrap it up, Marsha!

While my outfit didn’t quite meet my expectations, I do love Style Imitating Art challenges. For one thing, they give me a focus for a blog post. Another is they make me look at my clothing in a new way. While the spotlight on this outfit may have been more on the color of the sweater than on the rose print I wanted to highlight, I still did something different. Is this outfit a bit frumpy? Yeah, I have to admit it is. So, can we talk? How do you feel about floral prints? And, by floral prints I mean any and all…on your clothing or on your walls! Have you ever invested in a piece of art of any kind? What suggestions do you have to lessen the frump factor for my outfit? Please leave a comment or two, and we can talk! I promise to respond within a day or two!

Affiliate links and such:

Just a reminder that Marsha in the Middle may use an affiliate link. Those links are usually italicized. If you click or make a purchase from an italicized link I provide, I may receive a small commission at no cost to you. Thank you for your support. As of right now, I also have an affiliate code for Kantha Bae! Use MarshaintheMiddle in the promo code box for $5 off any order (excluding Bestie restocks)! I have also become a Halftee Partner. Use the code, MARSHA2098, for 20% off any purchase. I am now an affiliate with Clara Sunwoo. You can use my code, MARSHA10, for 10% off your entire order. In case you didn’t know, bloggers must disclose the use of affiliate links. That’s why I include this in each post.

Thank you!

As always, I am greatly appreciative of all of you who read, comment, subscribe, or email. I honestly cannot tell you how much it means to me. If you’d like to follow me on Instagram, you can find me here.

Where you can find me:

Linking up with Nancy’s Fashion Style, My Bijou LIfe, Fine-Whatever, Is This Mutton, Shelbee on the Edge, Chez Mireile, The Grey Brunette, and Away from the Blue. I also link up with This Blonde’s Shopping Bag, Doused in Pink, and I do deClaire and Mummabstylish. Please check out these wonderful ladies and their blogs! I also am a co-host for Ageless Style on the third Thursday of the month and Songful Style on the last Monday of the month. I co-host Traffic Jam Weekend with Michelle every Thursday. I also host Final Fridays on the last Friday of the month as well as 10 on the 10th on the 10th of the month! I do hope you’ll check out all of these blogs and link parties!

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