Graphic Culture by Lerner Jillian;

Author:Lerner, Jillian;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
Published: 2018-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

Gavarni’s Costumes

Masquerade and the Social Theatres of Paris

Although Gavarni is best known as a caricaturist and fashion illustrator, he was also a sought-after costume designer for Parisian theatre productions and carnival celebrations. In fact, he played a key role in the renovation of masked balls and masquerade costumes in the 1830s and 1840s. His costume work forged vital links between the theatre, print culture, and the social practices of ordinary Parisians. This was a time when Parisian artists and actresses became important public figures, prototypical media stars whose participation in urban life was increasingly performative and culturally authoritative. Several July Monarchy entrepreneurs explored how to leverage this artistic celebrity as a form of publicity.

Here two aspects of Gavarni’s activity as a theatrical costumier are analyzed: his invention of the débardeur, a travestied stevedore costume, and his collaboration with Virginie Déjazet (1798–1875), an actress famous for racy cross-dressing roles. Gavarni’s prints added significance to Déjazet’s roles on stage, and Déjazet’s performances were instrumental in popularizing Gavarni’s débardeur. A revealing case of artistic cross-promotion, the history of this transgressive costume also indicates the expansion of gender roles and alternative lifestyles during the July Monarchy.

Masquerade was much more than a form of amusement in nineteenth-century Paris. Among other things, it was a means to understand and experience the shape-shifting potential of modern life. Several aspects of the new society taking shape in post-revolutionary France could be made legible through the vocabulary of carnival, travesty, and performance. Carnivalesque inversion and the well-worn image of the world as a stage were particularly resonant tropes in this era of upheaval, when traditional social hierarchies had been overturned and there was heightened consciousness about the mutable nature of identity. Participants in the newly renovated social theatres of Paris – understood as both a historical and a metaphorical horizon – had much to gain by seeking out new scripts, roles, and interpretive guides. Gavarni and Déjazet were among the artists keen to adapt their services and try out for a part. They both became known as specialists in travesty, a word that in both French and English slides from clothing and disguise to grotesque imitation and perversion: its means include costume, caricature, pantomime, parody, farce, and the subversion of social norms.

This chapter begins with an introduction to the evolving attractions of the Paris Opera, including the new prominence of female performers, masked balls, and participatory experiences for theatre-goers. It then traces the development of Gavarni’s expertise in costume design and his role in the revival of carnival balls in the 1830s and 1840s. The concluding section examines the débardeur costume and its migration from the artist’s studio to the interconnected spaces of print, the stage, and social practice. Issues to be explored throughout include cross-platform mobility; the social work of travesty in revising gender, sexuality, and class; the blurring of distinctions between performers and spectators; and the passages between social representations and reality.

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