shelburne museum

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JASNA-Vermont ~ Next Meeting July 29, 2018 ~ Shelburne Museum Carriages

UPDATE! Go to our facebook page at “Jane Austen in Vermont” for some pictures of yesterday’s visit to the Shelburne Museum: https://www.facebook.com/groups/50565859210/

Most of the photos are of those few who dressed for the occasion, though there were many others there – our dressed ladies created quite a stir among other visitors to the Museum – perhaps we should all visit every weekend!

With thanks Margaret H for the photos!

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JASNA-Vermont will be taking a field trip!* On July 29th we will be visiting the Shelburne Museum for a curated tour of their Carriage Collection, many from Jane Austen’s era. The tour will be followed by lunch (all together but on your own) at the Museum Café (prepared by The Skinny Pancake!)

This is one of many in their collection – will post more photos after the event…

As a teaser, here is the King George IV low phaeton owned by Lila Vanderbilt Webb:

Stay tuned for more!

*[This event requires RSVPs]

c2018 Jane Austen in Vermont
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Fashion in Vermont ~ The Shelburne Museum

The Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vermont will be hosting its first major fashion and costume exhibition June 18, 2011 – October 30, 2011: 

In Fashion: High Style 1690-2011

In Fashion comprises over 75 costumes from the Museum’s permanent collection plus a select number of borrowed works from today’s top designers and design houses including Karl Lagerfeld, Oscar de la Renta, Carolina Herrera, Giambattista Valli, Giovanni Bedin, Balenciaga, Christian Siriano and others. The exhibit is presented in several sections: Haute Couture, Complete the Look, Fashionable 50’s, and Head to Toe.

In addition to including established names in the industry, the exhibit includes work by fashion design students from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. FIT students competed for the chance to have their designs included in the exhibit. They were asked to create pieces that complement a select number of bodices from the Museum’s historic collection.

Haute Couture: Pieces from the 19th-century by Parisian designers House of Worth and Emile Pingat exhibited alongside pieces from several of the most established and well-known contemporary designers.

Complete the Look: Eight late-19th and early- 20th century bodices from incomplete high-style garments drawn from the collection. Displayed with these pieces are pieces designed by students from the prestigious Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. FIT students competed to be a part of the exhibit. [See the Complete the Look website  for the 8 wining submissions – this is great fun to see what the students have done with the various bodices!]

Fashionable ‘50s: Clothing from the 1950’s represents one of the great strengths of the Museum’s collection. Poodle skirts and bespoke dresses by Hattie Carnegie for Museum founder Electra Havemeyer Webb are interpreted from a design, materials, and historical point of view.

Head to Toe: Accessories Hats to Heels includes handbags, hats, shoes and fans reflecting the glamor of the Gilded Age. Clothes to the Vest showcases men’s vests dating from the late 18th and early 19th century. Coat Couture features a selection of high end outerwear.

[Text and images from the Shelburne Museum website]

You can view the online gallery here – click on “View Gallery” link to scroll through 22 images.

I’ll be reporting more on this exhibit once it opens.  The Shelburne Museum is one of Vermont’s many treasures, famous for its quilts, decorative arts, carriages, and art masterpieces. It is not-to-be-missed if you are visiting us.  And if you are afraid that spring will never come after the record snowfalls we have suffered through this winter, do not fear – here is the surest sign of hope!:

[image from the Shelburne Museum blog]

Copyright @2011 by Deb Barnum, at Jane Austen in Vermont
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Cassatt/Austen

“As I find my pose, I think about how, when I first met Degas, he gave me the impression of an intelligent but fierce dog…
     And yet, something else emerged as he asked me questions. ‘Had I begun to feel better?,’ he asked, and ‘What was I reading?’ When I told him, ‘Jane Austen,’ he looked curious. ‘Ah, lequel?’ ‘Persuasion,’ I said, and then, surprisingly, his eyes lit on mine. A feeling connected us, quickly and with an absorbing depth.” (pp. 16-17)

I have just finished Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper by Harriet Scott Chessman. It is a small book, but I read slowly … to savor it.

It is a book I bought (used) some years ago (published date is 2001) after having read a library copy. It tells the compelling story of Mary Cassatt and her sister Lydia, through Lydia’s words and strung out in scenes centering on her modeling for several of Mary’s paintings. One of the paintings lends it name to the book: Lydia is shown reclining in a green chair, reading the newspaper. But this quiet little story has great depth. Lydia (like Austen one might be tempted to say) faces her past, her present, and the shortness of her future – for the action begins in September 1878, ends in June 1881, and Lydia died (of Bright’s disease) in November 1882. So it confronts death, sisterly-affection, sibling-rivalry, lovers lost and gained. An exquisite book.

It is particularly a propos at this moment, for the Shelburne Museum (Shelburne, VT) is hosting a Cassatt exhibition. Entitled “Mary Cassatt: Friends and Family,” the retrospective offers more than 60 works, gathered together from many sources. The guest curator is Cassatt ‘authority’, Dr. Nancy Mowll-Mathews. Highly recommended, and on until 26 October 2008.