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Toilette (redirected from Toilet)

Page history last edited by a.m.e.g.cooper@warwick.ac.uk 9 years ago

 

 

The Eighteenth-Century Toilette

 

 

An Introduction

 

The word toilette has a myriad of definitions. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, it originated in Middle French as teillette or tellettemeaning a piece of cloth serving as a wrapper or covering for clothes. By the eighteenth-century, its association with clothing and dressing remained unchanged, but the word had come to signify much more than just a piece of fabric. It could simultaneously refer to: 

 

1. The articles required or used in applying make-up, arranging the hair, dressing etc. Collectively these items were known as a toilet set. Also: a case containing these. 

2. The action or process of washing, dressing, or arranging the hair. As in to make one's toilet (often found in the form toilette).  

3. The reception of visitors by a lady during the concluding stages of her toilet. (The OED makes particular reference here to the popularity of this expression in the 18th century by stating this was an 'esp. fashionable' usage.) 

4. A dressing room (in later use especially one equipped with washing facilities); it was also known as a toilet room. 

(OED toilet) 

 

It is clear to see that the toilette could be a process of adornment and beautification, as well as the necessary articles and the physical space in which this grooming was undertaken. This multitude of definitions provides a broad spectrum of study for an object, process and space which was at the heart of the eighteenth-century cultural consciousness. This research will aim to demonstrate how the toilette was viewed with regards to gender, its representation in art and finally the use of the toilette in literary works of satire. 

 

 

The Toilette - A Gendered Space 

 

     The introduction of the dressing room into British homes began in the latter half of the seventeenth-century. An evolution of sorts gradually occurred as the wardrobe, formerly a room for the storage of clothes, became the dressing room. Whilst it was common practice amongst the wealthy for both the husband and wife to have a separate dressing room, the actual article of furniture known as the toilette, or dressing table, served as one feminising distinction between the two spaces. Lipsedge suggests one explanation for the toilette's pointedly female status being that it was regarded as "a space gendered by its association with female manners" (33). 

 


Figure 1: Dressing Table made 1760-1770 in France by Migeon 

The V&A website's accompanying description of this image states the dressing table was an "essential piece of furniture for fashionable eighteenth-century ladies, who spent much time at their toilette, preparing for an endless series of entertainments and social appearances."

 

     These "female manners" refer to, as the above caption indicates, the frequent and lengthy process of changing clothes, arranging hair and applying makeup. In other words, to make one's toilette in preparation for a social engagement. Great emphasis was placed on the belief that beauty would result in social success. Indeed, there was such an obsession with female beautification, that many pamphlets and magazines devoted themselves entirely to printing beauty advice. Much like the cacophony of women's magazines today, writers and publishers of the eighteenth-century saw the exploitation of vanity as a highly profitable venture. 

     One such writer was Pierre-Joseph Buchoz (1731-1807), a french physician-naturalist of much renown in his day. He began his career in practicing law, only to move onto medicine, finally giving up both to become a writer and publisher. His main published works were folios, on subjects such as botany, medicine, agriculture, ornithology and entomology amongst others. He has however been criticised by modern scientists, as he failed to contribute anything to the advancement of science (Meyer and McClintock 590). Thankfully for Buchoz, his contemporaries were not aware of his failings. 

     In 1771 he published La Toilette de Flore: Secrets de Beauté du XVIIIe siècle. The work comprised a recipe book of cosmetics, aimed at enhancing the loveliness of ladies everywhere. It was first translated and published in England in 1772. 

 

                                                        

     Figure 2: The Toilet of Flora by Pierre-Joseph Buchoz 1772

 

     The title page's directive 'for the use of the ladies' clearly engages a female audience. The wording of the title further introduces the work as a feminine object, because the beauty remedies it advertises are positioned as originating from Flora's own toilet. The pun of 'Flora' is both amusing and legetimising, as it could refer to both a woman and nature itself.

     The advertisement which follows on from the title page, impresses upon the specifically female audience the benefits of covering up their supposed defects. Cosmetics are celebrated as having the ability to hide ugliness and age - their efficacy is portrayed as limitless. This illusionary beauty is furthermore described as a powerful tool for women on page two of the advertisement:  

 

The Improvement of their Perfons is the indifpenfable Duty of thofe who have been little favoured by Nature, it fhould not be neglected even by the few who have received the largeft Proportion of her Gifts. The fame Art which will communicate to the former the Power of Pleafing, will enable the latter to extend the Empire of her Beauty (Buchoz 2). 

 

In making one's toilette, it is deemed possible to be pleasing and attractive, two feminine features greatly desired in women of the time. Extending the "empire" of a woman's beauty is expressive of the power of beauty in procuring admirers. The essential nature of this practice is also emphasised here, as it is the duty of all women, the beautiful and the ugly, to improve themselves with cosmetics to achieve this goal. It is also interesting to note that in this passage, nature is seen as the fickle bestower of beauty, as well as being Buchoz' proposed solution. A contradiction exists between natural beauty and natural ugliness, both are seen to exist but only the former is desirable.  

     The view of cosmetics as beneficial and necessary was by no means universal. In their jointly edited monograph, Kelly and Mücke recognise a "long history of attacks on the immorality of cosmetics" (144). One such example of this opposition to the toilette can be found in a much earlier eighteenth-century text, The Toilette, the three-part verse satire of Joseph Thurston (1704-1732). 

 

 

Figure 3: The Toilette by Joseph Thurston 1730

 

     The first and last books of Thurston's work, treat the toilette as a specifically female preoccupation. These books are an appeal to ladies to choose modesty and natural beauty, over what the author sees as the vanity of making one's toilette. Thurston situates the toilette and its accoutrement as the locus of this damnable obsession with beautification. The extracts below are the most pertinent of Books I and III which outline Thurston's sustained attack on the toilette. 

 

"Forsake thy glitt'ring shrine" (Thurston 4).

In portraying the toilette as a shrine, Thurston implies an ironic sense of religious devotion to the practice. A shrine is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "the box, casket, or other repository in which the relics of a saint are preserved" (OED shrine). Unlike its religious counterpart, this shrine contains nothing but cosmetics, deriding the fact that these petty things are given as much time and devotion as a Saint. 

 

If to perfection you the Head would drefs,

In all its Ornaments avoid Excefs; 

Load not with Toys, what Nature has defign'd

The nobleft Structure of human kind,

(Thurston 7)

 

Natural beauty is glorified as the worthiest charm, whilst excess is seen as unnecessary adornment for the female form. This proposition wholly contradicts Buchoz' view, who would have women use plants and potions to hide their natural imperfections. Thurston ensures the reader is reminded of the appeal of nature over superficiality in Book III. He implores women to align themselves with nature and use, as the muse for their appearance, the rose. 

 

Mark the fair Rofe-bud, at the prime of Day,

Its op'ning Beauties to the Sun difplay:

With what Referve its confcious Folds divide,

While the coy Sweets diffufe on ev'ry fide,

Such, and fo modeft fhould a Maid appear,

(Thurston 36)  

 

 

"Tis there, enamour'd with their fancy'd Store,

Kings cease to rule, and Patriots plod no more" (Thurston 12). 

The dissimulation of women's faces, and by extension their true selves, in making their toilette is seen as dangerous to men. The painted face and coiffured hair act as a trap in which they are ensnared. This particular quote intimates men will inevitably become useless in positions of patriarchal power, due to this deception and their subsequent infatuation.            

     Thurston not only depicts men as victims of the toilette but also as participants in the act of adornment. The process of the toilette is therefore seen to be undertaken by both men and women as a cross-gender practice. It is Book II which he dedicates to the edification of men on their toilette habits, which he deems to have grown too excessive. 

 

With her own Arms a Mifstrefs they purfue,

Snuff, Powder, Patches, Parte and Billets Doux.

Man's hardy Mould is in his Habit loft,

And Beaus assume the Softnefs of their Toaft. 

(Thurston 21)

 

Thurston here mocks how effeminate males have become. He lists articles which would have customarily made up a toilette, decrying them as the tools by which men have become overly feminine. True men should be "hardy" as opposed to the "softness" of women - softness which Thurston seems to locate in embelleshing the body.  A paradox here then exists, though men did indeed make their toilette, in doing so, according to Thurston they were occupying a feminine role and losing their true masculinity. 

     In his satire on male vanity, Thurston is just as scathing as he is with its female counterpart, it is only the angle of the satire which differs. 

 

In all Profeffions, fince the world began,

The ufeful Habit typify'd the man.

How bow the gaping Croud fubmiffive down,

When the huge Doctor ruftles in his Gown? 

(Thurston 23) 

 

Men are mocked on a professional level, which perhaps indicates that for men of the professional class, overly gaudy attire was inappropriate. This passage reveals that whilst Thurston is objectionable towards frivolous costumes of finery, he deems it necessary for a man to wear clothes befitting to his profession. This is the crux of Thurston's satire, it is the folly of excess and a departure from the natural, which the toilette facilitates, in both genders which offends him. 

 

 

The Toilette in Art: Watteau, Boucher and Hogarth

 

     By some in the eighteenth-century the toilette was seen as a mysteriously private space, the locus of intimate rituals. Taken as such, the toilette was of great interest to the erotic imagination, especially to the mind of a painter. Nonetheless, the production and representation of erotic images was regarded as sinful, hardly acceptable subject matter for great works of art. Around 1700 however, the art market for pictures of high aesthetic quality expanded to include some types of erotic art (Posner 39), reputable artists such as Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684-1721) were thus encouraged to produce them. Whilst the erotic nature of these paintings was given some level of acceptance, their purpose remained undeniably the same - to arouse the beholder. As Posner observes "all these eighteenth-centry works, Watteau’s included, offer the spectator the thrill of seeing what is private, intimate, and hence ordinarily forbidden to intruding eyes" (46). 

 

 

Figure 4: La Toilette by Jean-Antoine Watteau 1716-17

 

     It was a trope of this French style of painting to saturate the image of the toilette with allusions to sexually deviant behaviour. Whilst at first glance, this painting may seem to be a voyeuristic intrusion into the seemingly innocent act of dressing, if probed deeper, the toilette is replete with suggestions that its mistress is far from faultless. The bed's headboard is given the shape of a shell, one of the emblem's of Venus, crowned with the head of Cupid. These images associated with the Goddess of erotic love, render the bed 'a throne of love' (Posner 72).The beau désordre of the bed further heightens this sense of the erotic, as it hints at the previous night's activities. Watteau's choice to include the chemise about to cover the woman's body, only heightens the scene's provocativeness, as the contrast between her nudity and what she should be wearing is highlighted.  

     As is also seen in Pope's The Rape of the Lock, a lapdog was the sleeping companion of its lady. However the dog's presence would have suggested more than just a pet to the eighteenth-century onlooker. The dog was often depicted as the perfect lover, metaphorically at the beck and call of its lady, physically delighting her and sharing her bed. In Watteau's painting, the dog is given the same loaded connotations. It is seen to be in raptures of its lady's body, unable to look away, perhaps mirroring the voyeurism of the spectator. Thus the toilette, and the characters within it, are used as a vehicle for implicit erotica.       

     François Boucher (1703-1770) was another french artist who produced similarly erotically charged works of art. Both Watteau and Boucher were grandmasters of the French Rococo movement, famed for its immorality, licentiousness and decadence (Rodney 14). These characteristics of Boucher's work are reflected in his 1742 painting La Toilette. 

 

 

Figure 5: La Toilette by François Boucher 1742

 

     This painting can be analysed by looking at the same conventions of implicit eroticism found in Watteau's work, as the beau désordre of the toilette surrounding the woman reveals the truth of her personality and intentions. Merians observes that the position of the cat between its mistress's legs was "a traditional symbol of sexual receptivity" (170), connoting the occupation or evening's intent of the woman. The double entendre of the word cat is also intentional, in French "chat" shares the same nuance as "pussy" in English (Merians 170). Representations of the male genitalia are likewise present in the ornithological theme of her toilette -  the screen is filled with birds, alongside a figurine of one on the mantelpiece. Birds have long been significant of the male reproductive organ, this woman is effectively surrounded by them, suggesting a sexual motivation in making her toilette. These associations make the woman's supposed innocent moment of déshabillé erotic. 

     Like Watteau, Boucher makes no moral comment about the subject of his art. William Hogarth is the complete antithesis of this silence. In his work A Harlot's Progress 1731-32, Hogarth pictorially narrates the short life of naive country-girl turned prostitute Moll Hackabout. Hogarth utilises the conventions of hidden eroticism and subverts their intention. He moves away from titillation, in order to spread a far more didactic and moral message concerning the dangers of uncontrolled sexual appetite. 

 


Figure 6: A Harlot's Progress 1732 by William Hogarth 

 

     As in Watteau and Boucher's painting, Hogarth depicts Moll in a moment of déshabillé. Although an erotic aspect may be found in her uncovered breast, this is positioned in direct contrast to the signs of venereal disease on her face, rendering her body decidedly less attractive. The presence of bottled cures for venereal disease also lessen the eroticism of the scene; although the previous two paintings eroticise sex, Hogarth presents the audience with the desperate consequences of wanton appetite. 

     The pleasure for the observer of Watteau and Boucher's paintings was partially found in the pretended innocence of their subjects, giving a sense of voyeurism to the spectator. Moll has no such pretensions as Hogarth leaves no room for romanticising. He depicts Moll staring provocatively at the imagined observer of her toilette, demonstrating her awareness that she is on display. Although another hint of eroticism is located in the suggestive position of the cat at Moll's feet, this is again undermined by the presence of the maid. Her face is eaten away by venereal disease, thus acting as a sobering reminder of Moll's future. 

     Hogarth's sustained rejection of the erotic toilette demonstrates his desire to critique the glamour and implicit acceptance of sexually deviant women in the works of Watteau and Boucher. 

 

 

The Toilette in Satire: Pope and Swift 

 

     As a subject for satire, the toilette was widely exploited in the eighteenth-century. Both Alexander Pope (1688-1744) and Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) used the toilette to mock a variety of subjects in their works. The process and articles of the toilette were mocked by Pope in his 1712 mock-epic poem The Rape of the Lock, with particular emphasis placed on its association with consumerism.

The relationship between the toilette table and consumerism was inextricable in the eighteenth-century. Alex Eric Hernandez succinctly summarises the phenomenon. "As is well recognised, the period leading up to and encompassing the early eighteenth century had been unique in that it had overseen an exponential growth in the segment of British society with expendable income. The resulting boom in consumerism during the period meant a new and dynamic market for consumer goods ranging from fashionable clothing and cosmetics to imported coffee and exotic pets" (570-71). The reference to cosmetics here is key. As the toilette table was the site at which cosmetics were applied and where they were stored, it took on the same connotations of consumerism. Anxieties around the culture of consumerism, with particular reference to the toilette, are displayed in the mock-heroic narrative poem The Rape of the Lock. Here the satire is aimed at the consumerist nature of the toilette, identifying the products of mercantile capitalism as the means by which Belinda transforms her appearance. 

     As in Thurston's poem, the toilette is metaphorically situated as an "altar", connoting the self-referential aspect of beautification. Pope positions the toilette as a new, morally less valuable religious practice. This notion is further solidified in the casual placement of the Bible amongst her many other consumerist products. What was once a sacred religious object, has become just another product to be consumed. Placed alongside the cosmetics which are there to enhance the appearance, there is a suggestion that the Bible too is there for appearance's sake, rather than having any meaningful religious purpose for Belinda. In this way, Pope deems the toilette a process and place of proud vanity, with no meaning beyond aesthetic improvement. 

 

Th'inferior Priestess, at her altar's side, 
Trembling, begins the sacred rites of Pride. 
Unnumber'd treasures ope at once, and here 
The various off'rings of the world appear; 
From each she nicely culls with curious toil, 
And decks the Goddess with the glitt'ring spoil. 
This casket India 's glowing gems unlocks, 
And all Arabia breathes from yonder box. 
The Tortoise here and Elephant unite, 
Transform'd to combs, the speckled, and the white. 
Here files of pins extend their shining rows, 
Puffs, Powders, Patches, Bibles, Billet-doux. 

(127-138)

 

In Swift's The Lady's Dressing Room, first published in 1732, the satire uses Celia as a representative of all women, decrying the whole sex as objects of deceit due to the process of the toilette. It is the discrepancy between the public and the private female face which is highlighted as evidence of the falsity of womankind. 

 

Five Hours, (and who can do it less in?)  

By haughty Celia spent in Dressing; 

The Goddess from her Chamber issues, 

Array'd in Lace, Brocades and Tissues. 

(1-4) 

 

The above describes Celia's appearance after going through the process of making her toilette. It is clear that Swift mocks the length of time devoted to the toilette in the opening ironic interrogative. His distaste is further demonstrated in his belief that this lengthy practice of self-beautification has rendered Celia haughty, perhaps due to the admiration she has for her own appearance. It is with her introduction that Celia exists the poem for the rest of its duration, it is Strephon who reveals to the reader the true state of her toilette. 

 

But swears how damnably the Men lie, 

In calling Celia sweet and cleanly. 

Now listen while he next produces,  

The various Combs for various Uses, 

Fill'd up with Dirt so closely fixt, 

No Brush could force a way betwixt. 

A Paste of Composition rare, 

Sweat, Dandriff, Powder, Lead and Hair; 

A Forehead Cloth with Oyl upon't 

To smooth the Wrinkles on her Front; 

(17-26) 

 

The articles with which Celia makes up her public appearance are portrayed as filthy co-conspirators in her falsely beautiful image. This representation of women as objects of deceit could have its foundations in an eighteenth-century patriarchal anxiety surrounding the growing trend for women to have their own private spaces. Chico states that "the dressing room’s function as a stage for a woman’s dressing and undressing prompted a commonplace suspicion that women’s public appearances were not commensurate with their private selves" (42). Swift chooses to surround the toilette (I refer to it as both a process and a space) with mistrust through this dual image, focusing his satire on the vast difference between the private and the public woman. In doing so, Swift effectively discredits the viability of the dressing room, perhaps in an effort to fight against the vogue for lady's dressing rooms which he saw as "a challenge to the exclusive privileges associated with the privacy of the gentleman’s closet" (41-42). Due to the fact that the gentleman's closet could be viewed as microcosmically emblematic of patriarchy, for Swift the existence of a female equivalent was insupportable. 

 

Make your own Toilette!

 

Below is a video made by an eighteenth-century enthusiast who guides the viewer through the articles commonly used in making one's toilette. Enjoy the visual feast! 

 

 

 

Annotated Bibliography

 

Primary Sources: 

 

Boucher, François. La Toilette. 1742. Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Madrid. WikiArt. Web. 22 Feb. 2015.

Analysing this painting allowed me to view the erotic nature of the toilette in french rococo art. The multitude of hidden erotic references demonstrated this concept fully. 

 

Buchoz, Pierre-Joseph. The toilet of Flora; or, a collection of the most simple and approved methods of preparing baths, essences, pomatums, Powders, Perfumes, Sweet-Scented Waters, and Opiates for preserving and whitening the Teeth, &c. &c. With receipts for cosmetics of every kind, that can smooth and brighten the Skin, give Force to Beauty, and take off the Appearance of Old Age and Decay. For the use of the ladies. Improved from the French of M. Buchoz, M.D. London, 1782. Eighteenth Century Collections Online. Web. 1 March. 2015. 

This recipe book was particularly useful in identifying the intended of use of cosmetics. I used a quote from the advertisement which enabled me to analyse how cosmetics were aimed at women, to use when making their toilette. 

 

Hogarth, William. A Harlot’s Progress, Plate 3. 1732. British Museum, London. British Museum. Web. 3 Jan. 2015.

The immorality embedded in Moll’s toilette demonstrated to me the depth of Hogarth’s desire to warn against uncontrolled sexual appetite. 

 

Pope, Alexander. “The Rape of the Lock.” The Works of Alexander Pope. London, 1736. 137-174. Literature Online. Web. 3 March. 2015. 

Pope’s satire provided a wealth of interpretations surrounding the toilette’s relationship to consumerism. 

 

Swift, Jonathan. “The Lady’s Dressing Room.” Dublin, 1732. Eighteenth Century Collections Online. Web. 6 March. 2015. 

Swift’s poem gave me a basis from which to explore patriarchal anxieties surrounding the toilette and women’s privacy. 

 

Thurston, Joseph. The Toilette: In Three Books. London, 1730. Eighteenth Century Collections Online. Web. 2 March. 2015. 

I used this satire to demonstrate a pejorative view of self-beautification, with regards to both sexes, Thurston saw it as excessive and unnecessary.

 

Watteau, Jean-Antoine. A Lady at her Toilet. 1716-17. The Wallace Collection, London. WikiArt. Web. 22 Feb. 2015. 

This painting was the inspiration for the second section of my study. It was fascinating to see how much eroticism was hidden in what I initially thought was an innocent portrait.  

 

Secondary Sources: 

 

Chico, Tita. “Privacy and Speculation in Early Eighteenth Century Britain.” Cultural Critique 52. (2002) 40-60. Web. 15 December. 2014. 

This source was very useful in outlining contemporary thought on the privacy that the toilette afforded women. 

 

Hernandez, Alex Eric. Commodity and Religion in Pope’s The Rape of the Lock. SEL Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 48.3 (2008) : 569-584. Web. 6 March. 2015. 

This article was useful in providing historical context on the culture of consumerism in the eighteenth-century, with reference to The Rape of the Lock. 

 

Historical, LBBC. “An Introduction to the Eighteenth Century Toilette Table.” Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 30 Oct. 2014. Web. 10 March. 2015. 

This video provides a detailed and useful visual representation of the toilette table. 

 

Kelly, Veronica, and Dorothea Von Mücke. Body & Text in the Eighteenth Century. California: Stanford University Press, 1994. Web. 10 Feb. 2015. 

This work identified the history of attacks against cosmetics due to their perceived immorality. 

 

Lipsedge, Karen. Domestic Space in Eighteenth-Century British Novels. Chippenham and Eastborne: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. Web. 12 March. 2015.

This book provided useful historical context on the toilette, as well as introducing me to its gendered quality.

 

Merians, Linda Evi. The Secret Malady: Veneral Disease in Eighteenth-Century Britain and France. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1996. Web. 9 December. 2014. 

This source provided insightful analysis of Boucher's artwork and the various symbols of hidden eroticism. 

 

Meyer, Frederick G., and Elizabeth McClintock. “Rejection of the Names Magnolia heptapeta and M. quinquepeta (Magnoliaceae).” Taxon 36.3 (1987) : 590-600. JSTOR. Web. 10 Feb. 2015. 

This article gave relevant bibliographic information on the author Buchoz. 

 

“Migeon Dressing Table.” Victoria and Albert Museum, n.p. n.d. Web. 13 Feb. 2015.

This was a caption beneath figure 1, it provides a neat little summary of how the toilette was used as a beautification station. 

  

Posner, Donald. Watteau: A Lady at her Toilet. London : Allen Lane, 1973. Print. 

This book was greatly helpful in learning more about eighteenth-century erotic art. Posner draws some pertinent comparisons between Boucher and Watteau. 

 

Rodney, Ronald, and Rebekah J. Ronald. Art in the Wilderness: A Retrospective of the Art of Ronald Rodney. United States of America: iUniverse, 2002. Web. 12 Feb. 2015. 

This book was particularly insightful with regards to the French Rococo movement, and the involvement of Watteau and Boucher. 

  

"toilet, n." OED Online. Oxford University Press, December 2014. Web. 12 March. 2015. 

This was the starting point of my research. It signposted ways in which the toilette was understood in the eighteenth-century, as well as demonstrating its variant forms of spelling and meaning.

 

"shrine, n." OED Online. Oxford University Press, December 2014. Web. 12 March 2015.

This definition was particularly useful for emphasising the religious undertones of self-reference which pervade Thurston’s representation of the toilette. 

  

Images: 

 

Figure 1) Migeon. Dressing Table. 1760-1770. Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Victoria and Albert Museum. Web. 13 Feb. 2015.

 

Figure 2) Title page from Pierre-Joseph Buchoz’ The toilet of Flora; or, a collection of the most simple and approved methods of preparing baths, essences, pomatums, Powders, Perfumes, Sweet-Scented Waters, and Opiates for preserving and whitening the Teeth, &c. &c. With receipts for cosmetics of every kind, that can smooth and brighten the Skin, give Force to Beauty, and take off the Appearance of Old Age and Decay. For the use of the ladies. Improved from the French of M. Buchoz, M.D. London, 1782. Eighteenth Century Collections Online. Web. 1 March. 2015. 

 

Figure 3) Title page from Joseph Thurston’s The Toilette: In Three Books. London, 1730. Eighteenth Century Collections Online. Web. 2 March. 2015.

 

Figure 4) Watteau, Jean-Antoine. A Lady at her Toilet. 1716-17. Photograph. The Wallace Collection, London. WikiArt. Web. 22 Feb. 2015. 

 

Figure 5) Boucher, François. La Toilette. 1742. Photograph. Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Madrid. WikiArt. Web. 22 Feb. 2015.

 

Figure 6) Hogarth, William. A Harlot’s Progress, Plate 3. 1732. Photograph. British Museum, London. British Museum. Web. 3 Jan. 2015.

 

 

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