Tableaux de mode – Studien zum aristokratischen Genrebild in Frankreich in der ersten Hälfte des 18. Jahrhunderts

The doctoral thesis examines the tableaux de mode (fashion paintings), which depict in a highly realistic manner the aristocratic customs of Parisian society. The central subjects of this study are the works of Jean-François de Troy (1678-1734), Nicolas Lancret (1660-1743) and François Boucher (1703-1770), whose paintings from the early 1720s to the middle of the eighteenth century are amongst the most fascinating artistic achievements of the period. The present study undertakes an iconographic analysis of the pictorial motifs and uses literature (novels and comedy) and literary theory in order to situate these motifs in the context of contemporary social ideals and concepts like Honnêteté, Gallantry and Libertinage. In a section dealing with the reception history of the tableaux de mode, the heterogeneous classes composing the clientele of the tableaux de mode are placed in the socio-cultural context of the Régence. Questions of elite formation and urbanity at that time are related to the rise and evolution of these genre paintings.