The Reluctant Bride (Wedded Bliss Book 1)

Product Information

The woman to the left of the bride in a silk grey dress with a fur-trimmed brown dolman, and the women to the right wears a burnt orange velvet fur-trimmed dress.

When he turned 17, Auguste Toulmouche left for Paris in 1846 after completing his rudimentary art education. A money-to-burn and girl-chasing Texas oilman, Jeff Longstreet and a sensitive, dignified entomologist, Laura Weeks, find themselves together in Winchester, England charged with taking care . During the 19th century, the bride’s dress design gives an important insight into the century’s customs and social convention. While it was fashionable to have the a bridal gown of white and ivory, as Johnston notes, colored wedding ensembles were also acceptable (Fig. Jeff Longstreet and Laura Weeks are paired together to take care of a group of wild children whose parents are lost on an African safari.

He was best known for his depictions of idle beautiful women dressed in sumptuous fabrics, set against backdrops of equally luxurious interiors. Despite the shift of the subject matter, Toulmouche keeps to his standard of painting lavish gowns and luxurious backdrops.

Dress was never more clearly one of the most visible signs of “correctness” and “suitability” so valued by nineteenth-century society, than in the bridal gown. 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. 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.Despite the magnificent play of color and texture, the most striking aspect of this painting is the bride’s direct gaze at the viewer. The slim waist and full-skirted silhouette worn by the women in the painting was in vogue during the 1860s (Fig. 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.

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. 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). In The Hesitant Fiancée, Auguste Toulmouche steps away from his usual depiction of beautiful yet idle women Emile Zola described as “Toulmouche’s delicious dolls. Overall, The Reluctant Wife was a fantastic story that was centered around things I don’t read about every day while still featuring characters that made me so happy.Works such as The Hesitant Fiancée, 1866, demonstrates a new confidence in the intricate composition of four women who attempt to persuade the reluctant (and gorgeously dressed) bride to overcome her fears.