Les Incroyables

Conder made a significant contribution to the Aesthetic style of the 1890s with his exquisite watercolours painted on silk, often for fans.

The costume of the male figures in this ballroom scene and the bicorne hats of the women have been associated with the ‘Incroyables’ – the decadent gilded youth of Paris in the years after the French Revolution. Conder’s delicate coloured washes and the frail texture of the silk combine to heighten the evocative character of this mysterious scene.

Charles Conder's work evokes a decadent fin-de-siecle fantasy, which combines historical and contemporary references in a seductive image of femininity, desire and masquerade. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, Conder had been experimenting with the boundaries between the fine and decorative arts, partly inspired by current trends within these fields, but also for commercial reasons. His delicate, eighteenth century-inspired silk images were especially popular in Britain, and were created for fans, wall panels and dress decoration. The Courtauld's example shows his interest in real historical events - in this case the decadent dress of 'Les Incroyables' of the 1790s. These youths wore outfits that subverted strict dress codes and exemplified the fluid politics of the French Revolution. References to royal and revolutionary clothing and insignia were combined to create a style that flaunted a contradictory mix of political engagement and apathy amongst the jeunesse doree. The female figures refer to specific images of the era. The woman on the right wears a dark blue skirt and bicorne hat adorned with a tricolor that draws on both popular prints of Anne-Joseph Theorigne de Merincourt, and Boilly's images of sans culottes and Incroyables. However, as was usually the case with Conder, history is evoked as a memory, or cipher through which to re-imagine the present, rather than as an exercise in authenticity. This figure's blouse and stance are more concerned with the fashions of the turn of the nineteenth century, and the strident femininity of the 'New Woman', than with an accurate representation of the past. The other women are equally ambiguous - dancers in classicised drapery speak to the prints of Directoire beauties, but the tight, structured underpinnings of their dresses are from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. As in his rococo-inspired designs, Conder is fascinated by the past as an escape and as a means to explore eroticism and desire. Here, shady male figures hover in the background, their eighteenth-century hats and coats a further reference to 'Les Incroyables'. They seem to promise seduction, but could just as easily represent players in a theatre. Conder's use of gouache on silk gives lustre to the image, and emphasises both fluidity of dress and sense of movement in the bodies on the left. It creates a connection between clothing and 'canvas', art and design, which link to his own interdisciplinary approach. Conder was fascinated by fashion but perhaps more significantly, by dressing up and masquerade. He collected garments from earlier decades and made lithographs of, for example, Jean-Michel Moreau le Jeune's Monument du Costume. This interest in decadent imagery of luxurious dress and display was combined with influences from his environment - including Toulous Lautrec and the Parisian cafe culture. His cosmopolitan upbringing and international travel were significant too. Born in England, he also lived in India, then Australia, and mainland Europe. This perhaps freed him to explore cultural, social and historical references freely, since all were equally exotic yet familiar to him. As in this drawing, historical and contemporary life, theatre and the everyday, art and design become merged into an image of suggestion and intrigue.

Ernest Brown & Phillips, Ltd (London); William Wycliffe Spooner, Ilkley (1882-1967); Spooner Bequest 1967

Life, Legend, Landscape - Victorian Drawings and Watercolours, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 17/02/2011-15/05/2011

British Watercolours from the Spooner Collection, Huntington Museum of Art, Los Angeles, 12/02/2005-15/05/2005; Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere, 18/07/2005-23/10/2005; Hermitage Rooms, Somerset House, London, 16/11/2005-12/02/2006

Life, Legend, Landscape - Victorian Drawings and Watercolours, The Courtauld Gallery, 2011
cat. no. 35
ill. on p. 129

The Spooner Collection of British Watercolours, Courtauld Institute Galleries; Huntington Library; Wordsworth Trust, 2005-06
cat. no. 109
ill. on p. 247

Watermark: Watermark: n/a.

Inscription: Recto: lower right corner, blue bodycolour, signed by the artist: "CONDER".

Collector's mark: none.

Label: Formerly on the frame, now removed, with title inscribed in pen: "Ernest Brown Et Phillips, Ltd., / The Leicester Galleries, / Leicester Square, / London WC2 / 'Les Incroyables'".

Label: Formerly on the frame, now removed but recorded in file: "Charles Conder, Les Incroyables, no. 365J, TH and OH" [in a grid, see notes in object file].