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| Marquise de Sorcy de Thelusson, Portrait in 1790 by Jacques Louis David |
The portrait of Marquise de Sorcy de Thelusson by Jacques Louis David is considered the first appearance of Kashmiri Shawl on European canvas.
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| Madame Philibert Riviere by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, 1806 |
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| L’Imperatrice Josephine (1809) by Antoine -Jean Gros (Musee Massena) |
The famous story of Kashmiri shawls arriving in Europe goes like this:
In around 1796, in the time of Abdulla Khan, an Afghan Governor of Kashmir, a blind man named Sayyid Yahyah came to Kashmir from Bhagdad, and left with a orange Shawl as a gift from the governor. The Sayyid then went to Egypt, and gave it to the Khedive (Ruler) there. When Napoleon arrived in Egypt, Khedive gave the same shawl as present to him. In turn, Napoleon on reaching back France gave it to Josephine. It was Josephine who made it, a Shawl worn in the subcontinent by men, a rich fashion statement for women.
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| Will You go out with me, Fido?, by Alfred Stevens, 1859 |
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| Madame Louis Joachim Gaudibert by Claude Monet, 1868 |
Based on some of the names and a sequence given in ‘Flowers, Dragons and Pine Trees: Asian Textiles in the Spencer Museum of Art’ by Mary M. Dusenbur.
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with all the collection mother has for me, I should pretend to be madame something and get a painting too 😛
Upasna
Someplace Else