Hello,
This article is the first in a series on women's clothing during the New France period. This series of articles is based on the conference I gave at the Rendez-vous d'Histoire de Québec in August 2020, while allowing me to go further into the subject with more detailed explanations and even more iconography. This first article will deal with paintings painted in New France or representing ladies who lived in New France.
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| Detail of the ex-voto of Madame Riverin Date 1703 Author Anonymous Collection of Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec Credit photo: Joseph Gagné |
Imagine the people who lived 100 years ago, what their clothes were like. Take for example the cover of Vogue magazine.
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| Cover of Vogue June 1920 |
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| Cover of Vogue Paris May/June 2020 |
A little historical reminder taken from my secondary 4 history lessons: Before the establishment of the Filles du Roy, New France was a colony-trading post which served mainly as a supply of cod and furs. Most of the men signed up to work for 3 years and then left for Old France without settling. To help the establishment of families in New France, from 1663, King Louis XIV sent women to populate the colony. In exchange for a dowry provided by the king as well as travel expenses, the women who agree to become a Fille du Roy undertake to cross the Atlantic to take a husband in New France.
The first source of iconography that we are going to explore is the ex-votos of New France. An ex-voto is a painting or symbolic object given to the church in thanks for a grace obtained. When I made my presentation in August 2020, I only knew of two that represent women during the New France period that come from the collection of the Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec. However, since then I have found three others. One comes from the Musée des hospitalières de l'Hotel-Dieu in Montreal. Another is an old photograph of an ex-voto from 1666 in the collection of the Musée National des Beaux-Arts de Québec. The last one was indicated from one of my reader, Catherine Lapointe and is from the Musée régional de Vaudreuil-Soulanges.
Here is Mme Riverin's ex-voto from 1703.
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| Ex-voto of Madame Riverin Date 1703 Author Anonymous Collection of Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec Credit photo: Joseph Gagné |
The pious Madame Riverin is represented dressed in a blue brocade coat, rolled up at the hips, revealing a part of the stomach or golden whalebone body. She wears a Fontanges hair, this tall and characteristic of the end of the reign of Louis XIV. Madame Riverin is adorned with luxury white accessories: necklace of large white pearls and lace for the Fontanges hairstyle, the border of the chest and the sleeves, also called ''engageantes'' for the last piece of lace. Likewise the three girls in the portrait are represented with lace for the hairstyle, the neckline and the ''engageantes'' ones. This portrait is the most telling when it comes to the ability of the women of New France to follow the fashions of France. I will come back to this in the chapter dealing with this period of fashion, namely Chapter 3 of this series.
The lady at the top left is, in my opinion, a representation of Saint Anne, the mother of Mary. Since she a representation of the divine, I do not dwell on these clothes.
Now, here is the ex-voto of the three castaways of Lévis.
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| Ex-voto des trois naufragés Date 1754 Auteur Anonymous Collection of Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec Credit photo: Joseph Gagné |
The quality of the craftsmanship of this ex-voto brings it closer to naive art compared to that of Madame Riverin that we have just seen. Despite appearances, it was painted 50 years after the latter. Would this more rudimentary bill result in the difference in social class of the people who ordered the ex-votos? It is a hypothesis. It is also possible that 50 years later, on the eve of the French and Indian War, he no longer had a painter who had studied in France in the colony, but only self-taught. Unfortunately, very little is seen of the clothes of the shipwrecked women. This ex-voto gives a glimpse of how middle-class people perceived themselves and were represented. Each lady wears a cap and wears a neck handkerchief. The colors of their outfits are brown, gray and blue checkered.
Here is an ex-voto representing the interior of a hospital at the beginning of the 18th century.
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| La salle des femmes early 18th century Author Anonymous Collection des RHSJM Musée des hospitalières de l'Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal |
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| Albumen silver print of a 1666 ex-voto from Notre-Dame-de-Beaupré Cathedral Date 1892 Photographer: Jules-Ernest Livernois Collection du Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec |
I admit that this table leaves me perplexed in relation to the clothes. The interpretation of this painting exceeds my knowledge of the religious representation of the time and leaves me perplexed. The two figures in the foreground, either on the far right and the far left of the painting represent pilgrims, recognizable in religious iconography by the shell of St Jacques de Compostela. There is my question. The other ex-votos represent the people who paid for the ex-voto either in the process of thanking God (Madame Riverin) or during the event for which they survived and paid the ex-voto (the women's room and the three castaways). This painting seems to be a thank you for the arrival of a pilgrim in Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré. I am not an expert in religious iconography, far from it, but these pilgrims make me think greatly of this representation of the Renaissance, especially compared to men's clothing:
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| Engraving of 1568 showing pilgrims Author: Jost Amman et Hans Sachs Source: Wikimedia Commons |
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| Ex-voto of a sick child Date 1697 Artist Anonymous Collection du Musée régional Vaudreuil-Soulanges |
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| Portrait of Claude-Élisabeth Souart d’Adoncourt, baronne de Longueuil Artist Anonymous 1681 Collection of Musée McCord Cited into this article de Radio-Canada |
Here is the oldest portrait of the ladies of New France that I have found in my research, it dates from 1681. As with most paintings of women, today we have more information on the life of her husband. , Charles Lemoyne de Longueuil than on his wife.
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| Portrait of Charles Lemoyne de Longueuil Artist Anonymous 1681 Collection of Musée McCord Cited into this article of Radio-Canada |
In all likelihood, these portraits were taken before the newlyweds left France to settle in New France. Charles Lemoyne de Longueuil will hold many positions within the colony: Lord of Longueuil, Lord of Beloeil, Governor of Trois-Rivières and Governor of Montreal.
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| Portrait attributed to Madame Bégon, copy of Henri Beau 1935, Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
For years this portrait has been circulated as being that of Marie-Élisabeth Rocbert de la Morandière, called Mme Bégon for her marriage to Claude-Michel Bégon, except it is not. This is an attribution error on the part of Henri Beau, the copyist artist working for the Public Archives of Canada. It would be a portrait from the 1710s of the wife of another Michel Bégon, this one from Montfermeil. The couple from Bégon de Montfermeil have always lived in France. I am quoting here the record from Library and Archives Canada:
Henri Beau worked in Paris for the Public Archives of Canada from 1915 to 1938; his task was to copy landscapes, portraits, etc., and to carry out iconographic research. See Pierre Lallier, Henri Beau (Musée du Québec, 1992).
This portrait was once identified with Marie-Élisabeth Rocbert de la Morandière, wife of Claude-Michel Bégon (1696-1755). However, the original portrait of which Henri Beau made this copy is signed and dated on the back: G Dubuisson fecit 1710. The comparison of this signature with that of a religious painting by the same artist (in La Rochelle, Musée des Beaux-Arts de France) proves that the model is not Madame Bégon, wife of Claude-Michel Bégon. It may be Catherine Guymont (1666-1754), wife of Michel Bégon de Montfermeil.
However, that will not prevent me from talking to you about Marie-Elisabeth Rocbert de la Morandière. Simply called Mme Bégon after her marriage, she is famous for her “Lettres au cher fils”, written between 1748 and 1753, published by Éditions du Boréal. All my extracts come from this edition of 1994. Thus, Marie-Elisabeth Rocbert de la Morandière, known as Mme Bégon, is the only lay woman in New France who has left a written testimony of her daily concerns. Her numerous letters inform us about the life of the bourgeois and nobles of New France, despite the fact that she herself rarely participates in the various balls and sociability of the country's elite. Although born in New France, she leaves her native country to settle in France, where she wishes to be joined by her "dear son", who is in fact her son-in-law, Michel de Villebois. Which will not happen, unfortunately for Mme Bégon.
When she arrived in France in 1749, at a ceremonial dinner held on November 5 by the former intendant Gilles Hocquard, the letter-writer crumpled to see:
«Mme Hocquart rouge de vermillon comme nos sauvages qui vont en guerre; c’est dommage.»
''Mme Hocquart, red with vermilion like our Indians who go to war; too bad."
It just goes to show that there were differences between Canada and France, at least when it came to the application of makeup colors. A little later, on January 27, 1750, Mme Bégon wrote:
« Si tu eusses vu ta fille hier, tu serais resté comme elle fit à la vue de ce damas de couleur rose que tu lui donnas. Elle était avec un corps neuf qui lui fait la belle taille, de bonne grâce, et partit bien contente avec de la peine, cependant, de ne savoir point danser et elle revint très satisfaite d'avoir vu une aussi belle assemblée, mais toujours aussi fâchée de voir des dames aussi barbouillées de rouge qu'il y en a ici.»
"If you had seen your daughter yesterday, you would have remained as she did at the sight of this pink damask you gave her. She was with a new body which gives her the good waist, with good grace, and left very happy with sorrow, however, not to know how to dance and she returned very satisfied to have seen such a beautiful assembly, but always so sorry to see ladies as smeared with red as there are here. "
However, Mme Bégon's granddaughter, Marie-Catherine, changed her opinion of red a few months later as her grandmother indicated in a letter of September 19, 1750:
« Le voyage que notre petite a fait à Blois l'a un peu radoucie pour le rouge. Elle dit à présent que si elle était pâle, elle en mettrait un peu pour n'effrayer personne parce qu'elle pense que cela peut faire de la peine de voir quelqu'un d'une pâleur extraordinaire. Tu vois que nous nous apprivoisons volontiers avec tout. Elle a vu d'aimables personnes, ses parentes à Blois, très barbouillées et très jolies.»
“The trip that our little one made to Blois made her feel a little soft for red. She now says if she was pale she would take a little not to frighten anyone because she thinks it hurts to see someone extraordinarily pale. You see that we are happy to tame with everything. She saw nice people, her relatives in Blois, very smeared and very pretty. ”
Mme Bégon is rather pragmatic when it comes to clothes and fashion. On December 15, 1749, shortly after arriving in Rochefort, she denounced the high cost of firewood:
« J'ai fait chercher du bois mais qu'il est effrayant de payer vingt-quatre un cent de bûches qui à peine fait notre demi-corde! Voilà de quoi mourir de faim ou de froid. Mais j'aime mieux aller avec mes vieilles guenilles et me chauffer et manger.»
"I had fetched wood, but how frightening it is to pay twenty-four one hundred of logs which barely makes our half-rope! This is enough to die of hunger or cold. But I prefer to go with my old rags and heat and eat."
On April 5, 1750, she again expressed this opinion about clothes and the cold:
« Nous chauffons plus que nous ne le ferions en Canada et assurément à plus gros frais, mais j'aime mieux épargner en hardes et me chauffer: c'est là toute ma dépense.»
"We heat more than we would in Canada and certainly at a higher cost, but I prefer to save in clothes and heat myself: that is all my expense."
However, Mme Bégon gives in to the whims of fashion of her dear granddaughter Marie-Catherine, whom she brings up like her daughter. Much of the fashion-related information in her letters is criticism of the grandmother of her granddaughter. On April 5, 1749, on the last day of Lent, she wrote, while they were still in Canada:
« Ta chère petite fille a voulu être de tout et, n'aimant point à la laisser après moi, je l'ai menée volontiers. Nous avons passé partie de l'après-midi à coiffer des garnitures pour elle; des effilés tout neufs, des aigrettes de jais bien brillantes qui la flattent beaucoup mais elle est peu contente des gants que tu lui a envoyés: ils sont à la vérité des plus vilains que j'ai vu, tout déchirés entre les doigts et au pouce; les mitaines à peu près de même.»
"Your dear little girl wanted to be in everything and, not liking to leave her behind me, I willingly led her. We spent part of the afternoon styling trims for her; brand new tapers, very shiny jet-crested crests that flatter her a lot but she is not happy with the gloves you sent her: they are indeed the nastiest I have seen, all torn between the fingers and thumb ; the mittens more or less the same. "
On June 12, 1749, during an early heat wave episode, Mme Bégon described:
« Il a fait chaud aujourd'hui à avoir de la peine à respirer. Mais tu me connais et ne me plains point de ce temps que j'aime beaucoup mieux que le froid. Mais ta fille est pire que toi, elle n'a cessé de crier «Qu'il fait chaud! » Quoiqu'elle soit en simple robe de toile, elle se traîne par terre et est désolée par la chaleur.»
Canvas weaving
From this article: Les différentes armures de tissus
du blogue Pieds nus dans l'herbe
“It was hot today that it was hard to breathe. But you know me and don't pity me for this weather, which I like much better than the cold. But your daughter is worse than you, she kept shouting "How hot!" "Although she is in a simple canvas dress, she crawls on the ground and is sorry by the heat."
Marie-Catherine was nine years old during this anecdote. Usually ''toile'' (canvas) is the word used to describe the type of regular entanglement weave of canevas. In the 18th century, the ''toile'' (canvas) generally referred to a linen fabric using this method of weaving. We can imagine that at this age, she still wears a children's dress made of linen, a fiber known to allow moisture and heat to pass through.
On December 12, 1750, Mme Bégon complained about the expenses Marie-Catherine made at the Brest fair:
« Elle (Marie-Catherine) m'a fait des emplettes dont je me serais volontiers passée. Elle a pris un noeud d'épée pour son maitre de danse et plusieurs rubans pour moi, de son goût, qui sont comme tu penses tous rembrunis, car je ne porte que du noir en cérémonie et, dans ma chambre, une petite robe de cotonnade toute brune. Voilà, mon cher fils, l'ajustement de ta pauvre mère.»
“She (Marie-Catherine) did some shopping for me that I would have gladly done without. She took a sword knot for her dance master and several ribbons for me, to her taste, which are as you all think dark, because I only wear black in ceremony and, in my room, a little dress. all brown cotton. Here, my dear son, is the adjustment of your poor mother. "
This excerpt allows us to better understand her clothing vocabulary such as ''hardes'' and ''guenilles'' (rags) when she writes that she prefers to warm herself in winter than to dress. Which makes me think that my own grandmother still uses the word ''guénilles'' to refer to clothes.
In the "Lettres au cher fils", there are some letters which are not by the hand of Mme Bégon. One of Marie-Catherine, written in Rochefort on December 10, 1750, informs us of a practice of recuperation of Mme Bégon:
« Je vous prie, mon cher père, d'envoyer vos vieux bas de soie pour m'en faire. Maman aime beaucoup à tricoter.»
"I beg you, my dear father, to send your old silk stockings to make me. Mom loves to knit. "
I recognize in this the thrifty and pragmatic character of Mrs Bégon. What could be more timeless than a grandmother who knits stockings for her granddaughter! This also indicates that Mrs. Bégon learned to knit during her life, most likely in New France with the Ursulines who were mainly concerned with the education of well-born young girls.
From a letter from Claude-Michel-Jérôme Bégon, natural son of Ms. Bégon, we learn that Ms. Bégon loves Indian women, this printed cotton fabric with a floral pattern from India:
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| Reproductions of a wrapping gown in indienne and a robe à la française in indienne Like Mme Bégon, I love the indienne fabric! |
This quote is a slight additional clue for the use of indiennes in New France! By asking his brother-in-law if he remembers that his mother loves indiennes, Claude-Michel-Jérôme Bégon recalls memories of the time they all lived in New France. They have therefore already been in contact with this kind of tissue in the colony. (Despite the current ban. This subject also deserves further study.)
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| Portrait of Madame Joseph-Gaspard Chaussegros de Léry, fils, born Louise Martel de Brouage, Author Anonymous around 1755 Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec |
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This is the only one of the portraits I present to you today that was painted on American soil. According to the opinion of the National Museum of Fine Arts, it would have been enlarged to be proportional to that of her husband, a Canadian engineer by training, who was painted to him in France. Her husband, Joseph-Gaspard Chaussegros de Léry, was trained as a Canadian engineer who lived in the shadow of his father Gaspard-Joseph Chaussegros de Léry who was engineer to the King in New France from 1716 to 1756. The son resigned from his post as a sub-engineer in 1749 to focus on a more classic military career.
The type of dress that Mme Chaussegros de Léry wears is one of the exceptions for dresses illustrated in portrait during the 17th and 18th centuries. Some people say that these are portrait clothes provided by the painter for a more "timeless" portrait and which were not worn on a daily basis. Since I want to make this a full article in the future, I won't expand on the subject today.
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| Portrait de Joseph-Gaspard Chaussegros de Léry Artist Anonymous Around 1751-1752 Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec |
The portrait of Joseph-Gaspard Chaussegros de Léry is known to have been painted in France, which would explain the difference in brush strokes between the two portraits of the couple.
Here is the last official portrait of the ladies who lived in New France:
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| Portrait of Madame Pierre de Rigaud de Vaudreuil, born Jeanne-Charlotte de Fleury Deschambault, attributed to Donat Nonotte Around 1753-1755 Copy of Henri Beau First half of 20th century Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
I have already made a detailed analysis of this lady's life in this article in 2019. Let us briefly recall the journey of this lady's husband, Pierre de Rigaud de Vaudreuil.
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| Portrait of Pierre de Rigaud de Vaudreuil de Cavagnial, Marquis de Vaudreuil Attributed to Donat Nonotte Copy of Henri Beau First half of 20th century Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
He obtained the post of governor of Trois-Rivières in 1731. In 1742, he was promoted to governor of Louisiana. Jeanne-Charlotte de Fleury Deschambault sold all her goods in Canada to join him in France. He left France for Louisiana with her in 1743, a year after his appointment. They get married somewhere during the winter after arriving in Louisiana. In 1753, relieved of his post as governor of Louisiana, Pierre de Rigaud de Vaudreuil returned to Paris. Two years later, he obtained the post of Governor-General of New France, although it has been 12 years since not a single step set foot. This portrait was made during the couple's stay in Paris between 1753 and 1755.
To finish the portrait, here are two that leave me perplexed:
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| Portrait of a young woman, said to be Elisabeth de Beauharnais Artist: Nicolas de Largillière Between 1701 and 1711 Musée de Grenoble Source: Collection des musée de France (Joconde) |
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| Portrait of a young woman, possibly Elisabeth de Beauharnais Artist Anonymous Beginning of the 18th century Musée de La Rochelle Source: Alienor.org Conseil des Musées |
These portraits, I had not included them in my original presentation because the sources are not clear about this portrait. The first appears to have had another attribution in the past (Portrait of a Lady of the Barral Family) and is now with an attribution which, in my judgment, seems uncertain. The '' said Elisabeth de Beauharnais '' leaves a doubt as to whether it is really or not the lady. Outside, Elisabeth de Beauharnais was the wife of Michel Bégon de la Picardière, the intendant of New France who managed the recovery of card money by the government of the colony (intendant from 1710 to 1726). The dates are plausible, knowing that the couple got married in 1711 and that they did not leave for Canada until September 1712. In the present state of my knowledge, I cannot affirm without any doubts that the lady represented is indeed Elisabeth de Beauharnais and that she is the one who will be the wife of Michel Bégon de la Picardière. The second portrait in the Musée de La Rochelle is named after the resemblance of the lady's features to the first. Doubt still hovers.
There you have it, that's about all that portraits can tell us about women in New France. Most represent ladies of the very upper social class of New France either by their clothes or by the function of their husbands. The portraits were all painted in France, with the exception of that of Louise Martel de Brouage, Mme Chaussegros de Léry. Moreover, the portrait which has long been identified with the letter-writer Mme Bégon belongs to a lady who has never set foot on the American continent. The two ex-votos representing women of the people are unfortunately not very detailed in the precision of the work. All five ex-votos were painted in New France. It is difficult to draw a continuum of the evolution of fashion in New France from such a small sample of images.
What about written sources? Most inventories of the time note only the type of clothing like a petticoat, a cap, a pair of stockings, a dress or a mantle without further details. Sometimes there is a mention for the type of fabric, linen, wool, cotton, silk, velvet ... Other times there is a color for the garment. In short, nothing tangible to make us appreciate the variations in the shapes of clothing during the period from 1663 to 1763.
However, certain writings reveal to us a certain thing: the will of the ladies of the St-Laurent valley to know and wear new fashions. It is decried by the Swedish botanist Pehr Kalm, visiting the colony between 1749 and 1751.
I quote him, speaking of Canadian women:
«Elles ne portent pas moins d’attention aux modes nouvelles, et se moquent les unes des autres, chacune critique le goût de sa voisine. Mais ce qu’elles reçoivent comme nouvelle façon est déjà passé de mode et mis au rebut en France. Les vaisseaux ne venant au Canada qu’une fois tous les douze mois, on considère comme de mode, pendant toute l’année, ce que les passagers ont apporté avec eux, ou ce qui leur plait d’imposer comme étant du dernier goût. »
"They pay no less attention to new fashions, and make fun of each other, each criticizing the taste of its neighbor. But what they receive as a new way is already out of fashion and discarded in France. With ships coming to Canada only once every twelve months, it is considered fashionable, throughout the year, what passengers have brought with them, or what they like to impose as the latest taste. "
The colony of Canada in the 18th century is the area occupied by the St. Lawrence Valley. Kalm correctly notes the slowness of communication between the metropolis and New France under the guise of fashion. The lack of winter communication with the metropolis does not allow the ladies to update their outfits during this period, it is true. But this lack of communication is present for all other aspects of life in New France (letters, ordinances ...). Thinking about this quote, we can say that fashion, during the hot season, was one to three months out of date in New France compared to France, i.e. the time it takes for a sailing boat to cross the Atlantic.
It is thanks to this affirmation that I can base myself on French iconography to illustrate the evolution of clothing in New France during my next articles in this series.
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