Incroyables
Encyclopedia
The Incroyables and their female counterparts, the Merveilleuses (Marvelous women, roughly equivalent in this context to "fabulous divas"), were members of a fashionable aristocratic subculture of the Directory
period. Whether as catharsis or in a need to reconnect with other survivors of the Reign of Terror
, they greeted the new regime with an outbreak of luxury, decadence and even silliness. They held hundreds of balls and started fashion trends in clothing and mannerisms that today might seem exaggerated, affected or even effete. Some for instance preferred to be called "incoyable" or "meveilleuse", thus avoiding the letter R, as in "Révolution." When this period ended, society took a more sober and modest turn.
Many Incroyables were "nouveaux riches" who had gained their wealth from selling arms and moneylending. But members of the ruling classes were also among the movement's leading figures and the group heavily influenced the politics, clothing and arts of the period.
brought an end to the Thermidorian Reaction
. The Directory period began. There were masters and servants once more in Paris, and the city erupted in a furor of pleasure-seeking and entertainment. Theaters thrived, and popular music satirized the excesses of the Revolution. One popular song of the period called on the French people to "share my horror" and send "these drinkers of human blood" back amongst the monsters from which they had sprung. Its lyrics rejoiced that "your tormentors finally grow pale at the tardy dawn of vengeance."
Many public balls were bals des victimes at which young aristocrats who had lost loved ones to the guillotine danced in mourning dress or wore black armbands, greeting one another with violent movements of the head as if in decapitation. For example, a ball held at the Hôtel Thellusson
on the rue de Provence
in Paris' tony 9th arrondissement, restricted its guest list to the grown children of the guillotined.
and were too tight to allow pockets. To carry even a handkerchief, these ladies had carry small bags known as reticules. They were fond of wigs, often choosing blonde because the Commune had banned blond wigs, but they also wore them in such colors as black, blue, and green. Enormous hats, short curls like those on Roman busts, and Greek-style sandals were all the rage. These tied above the ankle with crossed ribbons or strings of pearls. Thérésa Tallien
became known for wearing expensive rings on the toes of her bare feet and gold circlets on her legs.
The Incroyables, wore eccentric outfits: large earrings, green jackets, wide trousers, huge neckties, thick glasses, and hats topped by "dog ears", their hair falling on the ears. Their musk
-based fragrances earned them the nickname muscadins among the lower classes. They wore bicorne
hats and carried bludgeons, which they referred to as their "executive power." They wore their hair at shoulder-length, sometimes pulled up in the back with a comb to imitate the hairstyles of the condemned. Some sported large monocles, and they frequently affected a lisp and sometimes a stooped hunchbacked posture as well.
In addition to Madame Tallien, known as "Our Lady of Thermidor", famous Merveilleuses included Mademoiselle Lange
, Madame Récamier
(who sat for a portrait by Jacques-Louis David
), and Fortunée Hamelin and Hortense Beauharnais
, two very popular Créoles
.
Hortense
, a daughter of the Empress Josephine, married the King of Holland
and became the mother of Napoleon III. Fortunée wasn't born to riches but became famous both for her salons and her string of prominent lovers. Parisian society compared Germaine de Staël and Mme Raguet to Minerva and Juno and named garments for Roman deities: gowns in were in the style of Flora or in the manner of Diana, not to mention tunics à la Ceres and Minerva.
The leading Incroyable, Paul François Jean Nicolas, vicomte de Barras
, was one of the five Directors who ran the Republic of France and gave the period its name. He hosted luxurious feasts, attended by royalists
and repentant Jacobins
, ladies and courtesans alike. Since divorce was now legal, sexuality tended to be looser than in the past. However de Barras' reputation for immorality may have been a factor in his later overthrow, in a coup that brought the Consulate to power
and paved the way for Napoleon Bonaparte.
French Directory
The Directory was a body of five Directors that held executive power in France following the Convention and preceding the Consulate...
period. Whether as catharsis or in a need to reconnect with other survivors of the Reign of Terror
Reign of Terror
The Reign of Terror , also known simply as The Terror , was a period of violence that occurred after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between rival political factions, the Girondins and the Jacobins, and marked by mass executions of "enemies of...
, they greeted the new regime with an outbreak of luxury, decadence and even silliness. They held hundreds of balls and started fashion trends in clothing and mannerisms that today might seem exaggerated, affected or even effete. Some for instance preferred to be called "incoyable" or "meveilleuse", thus avoiding the letter R, as in "Révolution." When this period ended, society took a more sober and modest turn.
Many Incroyables were "nouveaux riches" who had gained their wealth from selling arms and moneylending. But members of the ruling classes were also among the movement's leading figures and the group heavily influenced the politics, clothing and arts of the period.
Social Backdrop
Ornate carriages reappeared on the streets of Paris the very next day after the execution of Maximilien de RobespierreMaximilien Robespierre
Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre is one of the best-known and most influential figures of the French Revolution. He largely dominated the Committee of Public Safety and was instrumental in the period of the Revolution commonly known as the Reign of Terror, which ended with his...
brought an end to the Thermidorian Reaction
Thermidorian Reaction
The Thermidorian Reaction was a revolt in the French Revolution against the excesses of the Reign of Terror. It was triggered by a vote of the Committee of Public Safety to execute Maximilien Robespierre, Antoine Louis Léon de Saint-Just de Richebourg and several other leading members of the Terror...
. The Directory period began. There were masters and servants once more in Paris, and the city erupted in a furor of pleasure-seeking and entertainment. Theaters thrived, and popular music satirized the excesses of the Revolution. One popular song of the period called on the French people to "share my horror" and send "these drinkers of human blood" back amongst the monsters from which they had sprung. Its lyrics rejoiced that "your tormentors finally grow pale at the tardy dawn of vengeance."
Many public balls were bals des victimes at which young aristocrats who had lost loved ones to the guillotine danced in mourning dress or wore black armbands, greeting one another with violent movements of the head as if in decapitation. For example, a ball held at the Hôtel Thellusson
Hôtel Thellusson
The Hôtel Thellusson was a luxurious hôtel particulier, built in 1778 by Claude-Nicolas Ledoux for Marie-Jeanne Girardot de Vermenoux , widow of the banker from Geneva Georges-Tobie de Thellusson ....
on the rue de Provence
Rue de Provence
The rue de Provence is mainly in the IXe arrondissement of Paris. Only the short part of the street between rue du Havre and rue de Rome is in the VIIIe arrondissement....
in Paris' tony 9th arrondissement, restricted its guest list to the grown children of the guillotined.
Clothing and Fashions
The Merveilleuses scandalized Paris with dresses and tunics modeled after the ancient Greeks and Romans, cut of light or even transparent linen and gauze. Sometimes so revealing they were termed "woven air", many also displayed cleavageCleavage (breasts)
Cleavage, anatomically known as the intramammary cleft, is the space between a woman's breasts lying over the sternum. Cleavage is exposed by a garment with a low neckline, such as ball gowns, evening gowns, swimwear, casual tops and other garments....
and were too tight to allow pockets. To carry even a handkerchief, these ladies had carry small bags known as reticules. They were fond of wigs, often choosing blonde because the Commune had banned blond wigs, but they also wore them in such colors as black, blue, and green. Enormous hats, short curls like those on Roman busts, and Greek-style sandals were all the rage. These tied above the ankle with crossed ribbons or strings of pearls. Thérésa Tallien
Thérésa Tallien
Thérésa Cabarrus, Madame Tallien , was a French social figure during the Revolution. Later she became Princess of Chimay.-Early life:...
became known for wearing expensive rings on the toes of her bare feet and gold circlets on her legs.
The Incroyables, wore eccentric outfits: large earrings, green jackets, wide trousers, huge neckties, thick glasses, and hats topped by "dog ears", their hair falling on the ears. Their musk
Musk
Musk is a class of aromatic substances commonly used as base notes in perfumery. They include glandular secretions from animals such as the musk deer, numerous plants emitting similar fragrances, and artificial substances with similar odors. Musk was a name originally given to a substance with a...
-based fragrances earned them the nickname muscadins among the lower classes. They wore bicorne
Bicorne
The bicorne or bicorn is an archaic form of hat widely adopted in the 1790s as an item of uniform by European and American military and naval officers...
hats and carried bludgeons, which they referred to as their "executive power." They wore their hair at shoulder-length, sometimes pulled up in the back with a comb to imitate the hairstyles of the condemned. Some sported large monocles, and they frequently affected a lisp and sometimes a stooped hunchbacked posture as well.
In addition to Madame Tallien, known as "Our Lady of Thermidor", famous Merveilleuses included Mademoiselle Lange
Anne Françoise Elizabeth Lange
Anne Françoise Elisabeth Lange was a French actress of the Comédie-Française and a 'Merveilleuse' of the French Directory. Her stage name was Mademoiselle Lange.-Life:...
, Madame Récamier
Jeanne Françoise Julie Adélaïde Récamier
Jeanne-Françoise Julie Adélaïde Bernard Récamier , known as Juliette, was a French society leader, whose salon drew Parisians from the leading literary and political circles of the early 19th century.-Biography:...
(who sat for a portrait by Jacques-Louis David
Jacques-Louis David
Jacques-Louis David was an influential French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era...
), and Fortunée Hamelin and Hortense Beauharnais
House of Beauharnais
The House of Beauharnais or Beauharnois is a French noble house. It is now represented by the Duke of Leuchtenberg, descendant in male line of Eugène de Beauharnais.-History:...
, two very popular Créoles
Creole peoples
The term Creole and its cognates in other languages — such as crioulo, criollo, créole, kriolu, criol, kreyol, kreol, kriulo, kriol, krio, etc. — have been applied to people in different countries and epochs, with rather different meanings...
.
Hortense
Hortense de Beauharnais
Hortense Eugénie Cécile Bonaparte , Queen Consort of Holland, was the stepdaughter of Emperor Napoleon I, being the daughter of his first wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais. She later became the wife of the former's brother, Louis Bonaparte, King of Holland, and the mother of Napoleon III, Emperor of...
, a daughter of the Empress Josephine, married the King of Holland
Louis Bonaparte
Louis Napoléon Bonaparte, Prince Français, Comte de Saint-Leu , King of Holland , was the fifth surviving child and the fourth surviving son of Carlo Buonaparte and Letizia Ramolino...
and became the mother of Napoleon III. Fortunée wasn't born to riches but became famous both for her salons and her string of prominent lovers. Parisian society compared Germaine de Staël and Mme Raguet to Minerva and Juno and named garments for Roman deities: gowns in were in the style of Flora or in the manner of Diana, not to mention tunics à la Ceres and Minerva.
The leading Incroyable, Paul François Jean Nicolas, vicomte de Barras
Paul François Jean Nicolas, vicomte de Barras
Paul François Jean Nicolas, vicomte de Barras was a French politician of the French Revolution, and the main executive leader of the Directory regime of 1795–1799.-Early life:...
, was one of the five Directors who ran the Republic of France and gave the period its name. He hosted luxurious feasts, attended by royalists
Monarchism
Monarchism is the advocacy of the establishment, preservation, or restoration of a monarchy as a form of government in a nation. A monarchist is an individual who supports this form of government out of principle, independent from the person, the Monarch.In this system, the Monarch may be the...
and repentant Jacobins
Jacobin (politics)
A Jacobin , in the context of the French Revolution, was a member of the Jacobin Club, a revolutionary far-left political movement. The Jacobin Club was the most famous political club of the French Revolution. So called from the Dominican convent where they originally met, in the Rue St. Jacques ,...
, ladies and courtesans alike. Since divorce was now legal, sexuality tended to be looser than in the past. However de Barras' reputation for immorality may have been a factor in his later overthrow, in a coup that brought the Consulate to power
French Consulate
The Consulate was the government of France between the fall of the Directory in the coup of 18 Brumaire in 1799 until the start of the Napoleonic Empire in 1804...
and paved the way for Napoleon Bonaparte.
Representation in the Arts
The fictional nouveau riche social climber Madame Angot parodied the merveilleuses in many plays of the period, awkwardly wearing ridiculous Greek clothing. Carl Vernet's caricatures of the wardrobes of the Incroyables and Merveilleuses also met with contemporary popular success.See also
- Salon (gathering)Salon (gathering)A salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine taste and increase their knowledge of the participants through conversation. These gatherings often consciously followed Horace's definition of the aims of poetry, "either to...
- 1790s
- 1800-1809
- 1795-1820 in fashion1795-1820 in fashionFashion in the period 1795–1820 in European and European-influenced countries saw the final triumph of undress or informal styles over the brocades, lace, periwig, and powder of the earlier eighteenth century...
- Thermidorian ReactionThermidorian ReactionThe Thermidorian Reaction was a revolt in the French Revolution against the excesses of the Reign of Terror. It was triggered by a vote of the Committee of Public Safety to execute Maximilien Robespierre, Antoine Louis Léon de Saint-Just de Richebourg and several other leading members of the Terror...
- Caricatures
- Paris Commune (French Revolution)Paris Commune (French Revolution)The Paris Commune during the French Revolution was the government of Paris from 1789 until 1795. Established in the Hôtel de Ville just after the storming of the Bastille, the Commune became insurrectionary in the summer of 1792, essentially refusing to take orders from the central French...
- Jean-Lambert TallienJean-Lambert TallienJean-Lambert Tallien , was a French political figure of the revolutionary period.-Clerk and journalist:He was the son of the maître d'hôtel of the Marquis de Bercy, and was born in Paris. The marquis, noticing his ability, had him educated, and got him a place as a lawyer's clerk...
- Reign of TerrorReign of TerrorThe Reign of Terror , also known simply as The Terror , was a period of violence that occurred after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between rival political factions, the Girondins and the Jacobins, and marked by mass executions of "enemies of...
- French DirectoryFrench DirectoryThe Directory was a body of five Directors that held executive power in France following the Convention and preceding the Consulate...
- French ConsulateFrench ConsulateThe Consulate was the government of France between the fall of the Directory in the coup of 18 Brumaire in 1799 until the start of the Napoleonic Empire in 1804...
- CommuneCommuneCommune may refer to:In society:* Commune, a human community in which resources are shared* Commune , a township or municipality* One of the Communes of France* An Italian Comune...
- GuillotineGuillotineThe guillotine is a device used for carrying out :executions by decapitation. It consists of a tall upright frame from which an angled blade is suspended. This blade is raised with a rope and then allowed to drop, severing the head from the body...
- Napoleon Bonaparte
- Caricatures
- Théâtre de ParisThéâtre de ParisThe Théâtre de Paris is a theatre located at 15, rue Blanche in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. It includes a second smaller venue, called the Petit Théâtre de Paris.-History:...
- Bals des victimes
- Antoine-François Ève, playwright who wrote several plays featuring Madame Angot
- Thermidor et Directoire
Other meanings
- Incroyable was an 18th century French nickname for a yo-yoYo-yoThe yo-yo in its simplest form is an object consisting of an axle connected to two disks, and a length of twine looped around the axle, similar to a slender spool...
, then a fashionable toy.
