Portrait à la mode

The École de Paris, or School of Paris, stands for the international Parisian art scene in the early years of the 20th century and is often associated with names like Picasso and Matisse. But it also featured several portrait painters whose fashionable portraits of women enjoyed great popularity among Parisian society: Thanks to Paul-César Helleu, Giovanni Boldini, Marie Laurencin, Kees van Dongen, and Jacqueline Marval, among others, the Portrait à la mode became a genre of its own. Since it was overshadowed by the avant-garde, it has hitherto rarely been the subject of art-historical research. These for the time very representative Portraits à la mode prompt a critical view of society, fashion, and the changing image of women during the Belle Époque, the interwar years, and the roaring 1920s.