Mother and child - Boutet de Monvel's portraits of his wife and daughter

The Cradle or Sylvie in her Cradle, circa 1922.

Sylvie in her Cradle, circa 1922. A watercolor version of the above, presumably a preparatory sketch.

Sylvie as a Baby, circa 1922.

Delfina Boutet de Monvel at Sylvie's Cradle, 1923. The infant's raised hand is a delightful detail.

Delfina Sitting Next to Sylvie in Her Cradle, circa 1922. A watercolor version of the above.

Profile Portrait of Delfina Boutet de Monvel, Wearing a Feather Hat by Jeanne Lanvin, circa 1926.

Delfina Boutet de Monvel Wearing an Ensemble by Pierre Piguet, 1936.

Profile Portrait of Delfina, the Artist's Wife, study for the above, 1936.

Delfina Playing the Guitar, circa 1937.

Sylvie, 1941. The artist's daughter at the age of nineteen.

Sylvie, 1928.

Sylvie as a Communicant, 1932.

Profile Portrait of Sylvie, circa 1941.

Sylvie Boutet de Monvel, 1941.

Sylvie and Her Dog Champagne, Paris, 1944.

Sylvie and Her Dog Champagne, Nemours, 1944. The same pose as above, but set at the family's country house; the dog has also had a trim!

Triple portrait of the family, circa mid-late 1940s.

The one who gets all the loot - bejeweled portraits of Queen Mary

Portrait by Arthur Trevethin Nowell, 1927.

During her time, Queen Mary - the consort of George V, grandmother of the present queen - oversaw a great wealth of jewelry being added to the already brimming royal coffers of the United Kingdom. Both in the collection of "crown jewels", and those held in private possession of the Windsor ladies. Many pieces were new-made, other were redesigns of earlier pieces. And she also purchased important pieces from those royals who had not fared so well post-WWI, most notably, the surviving members of the Russian Imperial family. (Though the Queen was a notorious magpie and "bargain-hunter" - perhaps the lingering result of a royal but embarrassingly debt-ridden childhood - rumors that appeared a few decades back that, during the Thirties, she bought up her Russian relatives' jewelry for less than market value, appear to have been proven false.)

Detail of above. The Queen is wearing the "Lover's Knot" tiara she had had made by Garrard in 1914, copied from a tiara owned by her
aunt and godmother, Augusta, Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. The uppermost pearls removed, it was later famously worn by
Diana, Princess of Wales.

During her husband's reign and as a dowager, she was not afraid to display this ever-accumulating bounty on her person and, like her mother-in-law Queen Alexandra before her, she was quite impressive in the sheer quantity of ornamentation she could carry. Indeed, even more so than her petite predecessor, Queen Mary's height and the great expanse of her famously prodigious bosom were able to accommodate a truly mighty jeweled burden. And her husband and the British people took great delight in their queen "all got up like a Christmas tree." This was true even after the Edwardian age that was her heyday had passed, after the fashions changed - and she stayed the same. She was reliably bejeweled and immovable. And has thus remained a royal icon.

Portrait by Richard Jack, 1927. The Queen wears the diamond and pendant pearl tiara that had belonged to the Grand Duchess Vladimir of
Russia. The large brooch centered on the Garter Riband is made up of the third and fourth cuttings from the famous Cullinan diamond;
the present Queen has referred to them as "Granny's Chips".

Portrait by Simon Elwes, 1933-34. Queen Mary wears the Vladimir tiara with the brooch from the Garrard suite of 1863 which was given as a
wedding present to the future Queen Alexandra by her fiancé, then Prince of Wales.

A colored illustration from a contemporary periodical, circa 1902.

Portrait by Sir William Samuel Henry Llewellyn, 1914. The queen, dressed in Garter robes, wears the "Girls of Great Britain and Ireland" tiara.
The upstanding pearls later removed, it has become iconic as worn by her grand-daughter, especially early in her reign.

Portrait by Arthur Trevethin Nowell, 1935. She again wears the "Lover's Knot" tiara.

Portrait by Simon Elwes, 1938. Dressed for the coronation of her son, George VI, she again wears the Cullinan III and IV brooch.

Portrait by David Jagger, 1930. A bit more understated, this, the queen is only wearing a few rubies and some pearls.

A watercolor sketch done from the group portrait of 1913, by Sir John Lavery, 1914.

Oil sketch of the Queen, by Sir John Lavery, done in preparation for or commemoration of the group portrait seen below, 1913.

"The Royal Family at Buckingham Palace", by Sir John Lavery, 1913.

Portrait by Leonard Campbell Taylor, 1928. The diamond choker was later shortened into a bracelet by her successor, Queen Elizabeth.

Coronation portrait by Sir William Samuel Henry Llewellyn, 1911-12. The State Diadem was actually made for the coronation of George IV -
though, as it happened, it went unused - but since then has only been worn by queens, consort and regnant.

Dressed for the coronation of Edward VII, circa 1902. Miniature based on a photograph by W. & D. Downey.

Portrait by Sir Oswald Birley, 1934. The Queen wears the choker as in the portrait by Taylor, above, as well as the "True Lover's Knot" brooch.

The court hoop (and I'm not talking basketball....)

From about the middle of the 1790s to the ascension of King George IV in 1820, English ladies found the expectations of court dress at great odds with the popular fashions of the day. Court etiquette adhered to those rules laid down by Queen Charlotte - the consort of George III - earlier in her husband's reign, and she still presided over the royal drawing rooms, and would until her death in 1818. Wide panniers had been de rigeur at European courts through almost the entirety of the eighteenth century. But now, with fashion's silhouette changing so radically, good sense would require that they be dispensed with. Instead, as the waistline made its rapid ascent to its full-on right-under-the-bosom Empire height, the English "court hoop" went right up with it. Where before there was some grace to the exaggerated width of a gown's skirt - an expanse ameliorated by the slim, corseted waistline and, the width coming at the hips, showing some response, at least, to a woman's natural proportions - now a lady was just an overdecorated box. And functionally particularly awkward. With a lower waisted gown, with the pannier set at hip level, a woman at least had room for her arms, even if necessarily bent. With the hoops right up under her armpits, where were her arms supposed to go? A most impractical fashion, really only suitable to a Venus de Milo.

Fashion plates of the day were printed plain; color was added by hand, often varying greatly from print to print.

A colored version of the plate above.

Another example of a plain printed plate, followed by a colored-in version.

Whether due to artistic license or because it's a transitional example, the court hoop is not very obvious here.

Russian families - portraits by Feodor Tulov

Vladimir Ivanovich Benckendorff, 1845.

Elizaveta Alexeievna Benckendorff, née Janova, 1845.

Feodor Andreievich Tulov (1792 - 1855), little-known Russian artist, predominantly a portrait painter, he also contributed to the decoration of churches. Born a serf, he later attained his freedom. There is no record of his early life, but after 1810 he is known to have worked for Prince Mikhail Alexandrovich Shakhovsky, producing portraits of his family. And from 1830 he lived and worked at the estate of Alexander Ivanovich von Benckendorff where he portrayed many members of that family as well. To date more than sixty of his works have been identified in various museums and private collections in Russia, Belarus, and the Ukraine.

A child of the Benckendorff family, 1842.

A child of the Benckendorff family, 1842.

Sophia Pavlovna Baranova, née Benckendorff, circa 1850.

Prince Mikhail Alexandrovich Shakhovsky, 1815.

Princess Elisaveta Mikhailevna Shakhovskaya, circa 1820.

Princess Aleksandra Mikhailovna Shakhovskaya, circa 1815.

Princess (unknown) Mikhailovna Shakhovskaya, circa 1815.

Alexander Nikolaievich Muravyov, circa 1820.

Praskovia Mikhailovna Muravyova with her daughter Sophia, 1826.

Unknown, circa 1820s.

Boy in Schoolboy Uniform, 1853.

Girl in White Dress, 1854.

Unknown, nd.

Young Officer, 1841.

Unknown, circa 1820s.

Portrait of a Lady, circa 1820s.