indigo pears

Yesterday, we went to the High Museum of Art in Atlanta.
They are having a special showing of art works from the Louvre in Paris!

This painting by Diego Velazquez is one of the most lovely there...and is used on the poster for the exhibit. Velazquez painted this little girl, for the Queen of France....Marie Antoinette's mother-in-law. He did pure painting with no preliminary drawing on the canvas! Her skin is translucent!

Also part of this exhibit were the decorative arts of the time just before the French Revolution. I was amazed and delighted to see paper costumes for Marie Antoinette (Queen) and Louis (king) created by Isabelle de Borchgrave. These images from the Internet are similar to the dress I saw. However, the head dress for queen Marie Antoinette included a clipper-type sailing ship.... done in paper. Her husband's costume of powdered wig, short pants and jacket worn with a shirt featuring sheer filagree lace ruffles were also done entirely in paper.



You can learn more about Isabelle and see a video of her studio on her website....(above) I had seen this video a few weeks ago after Loretta of Pomegranates and Paper posted about Isabelle and her painting! I might have overlooked the beauty of the papaer costumes, had I not known about Isabelle...thanks, Loretta!