Anon. Traditional Costume: Kehl, River Rhine, Germany

Continental Folk Costumes: Early 19th-century Watercolours

This painting forms part of a small group of exquisite early 19th-century costume studies that we have for sale. The artist is English but the subjects are Continental: the folk costumes of Switzerland, France, Italy and Germany. The pictures feature archetypal characters, such as 'Peasant' and 'Priest', and they depict the fine particularity of regional dress, with their specific headdresses, patterned fabrics and accoutrements, such as baskets, tools and pipes.

These studies evidence 19th-century interest in Continental travel and Grand Tour locations, as well as the prevailing desire of the Victorian era to classify and catalogue. Early in the century saw a profusion of guide books and illustrated encyclopedias, bringing knowledge of the far-flung and 'exotic' to the armchair reader. These included books devoted to costume, with artists such as Louis Marie Lanté (1789–1871) and François Claudius Compte-Calix (1813–1880) being prolific and encyclopedic in their output of fashion plates. Such illustrations provide a fine record of local customs and histories which may otherwise be lost.