Dinner dress

House of Worth|Charles Frederick Worth

ca. 1877 · silk · Costume Institute

Autumn leaves decorate a silk dress the bronzed color of the season and its leaves. Never melancholy in their majesty, the leaves remind us of Homer's phrase: "like leaves on trees the race of man is found, Now green in youth, now withering on the ground: another race the following spring supplies; they fall successive, and successive rise." The dress is likewise an allegory cognizant of the season and of a cycle of life and death.

Artist

House of Worth|Charles Frederick Worth

Date

ca. 1877

Medium

silk

Culture

French

Department

Costume Institute

Credit line

Gift of Estate of Mrs. Pierpont Morgan, 1925