One thing that always strikes me about the late Victorian beach scenes is how formally the people dressed. The weather may not have been suitable for bathing suits, but people seemed to have in any case chosen formal clothing, dark colours, tailored jackets, ground-length dresses, hats and umbrellas.
I suppose they wanted to keep up standards, even on holidays or day trips.
We have such a gradation of dress now. I think at the time there was working dress and 'Sunday best' and people wanted to show off their 'finery' regardless of the weather. Victorian travellers to the tropics fascinate me - must have been so uncomfortable.
3 comments:
One thing that always strikes me about the late Victorian beach scenes is how formally the people dressed. The weather may not have been suitable for bathing suits, but people seemed to have in any case chosen formal clothing, dark colours, tailored jackets, ground-length dresses, hats and umbrellas.
I suppose they wanted to keep up standards, even on holidays or day trips.
We have such a gradation of dress now. I think at the time there was working dress and 'Sunday best' and people wanted to show off their 'finery' regardless of the weather. Victorian travellers to the tropics fascinate me - must have been so uncomfortable.
awesome painting! I never seen something like this before.
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