When he turned 17, Auguste Toulmouche left for Paris in 1846 after completing his rudimentary art education. A reluctant bride, presumably coming from an affluent family as evidenced by her rather opulent bridal dress, sits in a parlor room before the wedding ceremony. The women depicted in Toulmouche’s painting are fashionable as evidenced by the fashion plates and wedding ensembles of that period–from the silhouette of a small fitted waist and a bell skirt (Fig.

As Abby uncovers why he’s in such a hurry for a child, she falls in love with him again … just as she realizes it might be impossible to keep her end of the deal.One moment I’m the forgotten daughter of one of the most wealthy families in the country, and the next I’m the blushing bride in an arranged marriage. Focusing on the woman kissing the bride’s forehead, her clothing is within the societal norms of the 1860s with the high collar and the fuller skirt.

She is the only one whose dress is devoid of the fur trim, but her gown is still decorated with a darker-colored shawl constructed with a black-trimmed neckline. Janet Whitmore in her biography on Toulmouche quotes critic Emile Zola who referred to Toulmouche’s painted women as “Toulmouche’s delicious dolls” [ délicieuses poupées de Toulmouche] (Whitmore). The fashion for white wedding dresses started in the mid-eighteenth century, although most people were married in coloured gowns. Satins will be very much worn: they are of very elegant quality, and rich shades such as crimson, Magenta, blue, green, with the softer shades of mode. Despite the simplicity, the gown is no less opulent because of the striking color of white and the shine of the silk fabric.During the 1860s, Toulmouche refined his style, and began exploring more complex compositional structures. There is little information published about The Hesitant Fiancée, but the subject depicted is quite clear. During the 1860s the fashion rules for women allowed the crinoline to change its shape, becoming flatter at the front and then shrinking to a half-crinoline with half hoops at the back.

Virginia Bruce is a laboratory-bound entomologist who's got a dull colleague/fiance in Brian Oulton. During the 19th century, the bride’s dress design gives an important insight into the century’s customs and social convention. The other woman in the painting, the one holding the bride’s hand, is dressed in a burnt orange satin/velvet high neck gown. The jokes aren't about people, they're about non-existent stereotypes, and it's only the inevitablity of plots like this one that means they'll get together at the end of the movie; this is the sort of story which has me saying "I give them one month, and then Carroll is back out in the field dealing with rough men and sexy gold diggers, and she's back in the lab looking at bugs.The neck and fronts, cuffs and hems are edged with wide bands of white arctic fox (Canis lagopus) and deep fringes of chenille trimming. What they share are a brother and a sister who are married, have three too-bright children, and have been missing on an African expedition for seven years. The slim waist and full-skirted silhouette worn by the women in the painting was in vogue during the 1860s (Fig.