Rendezvous at Marly

This print is from the celebrated eighteenth-century book Monument du Costume, which illustrated the manners, clothes, and amusements of eighteenth-century society. This particular series in the book follows the life of a married lady of the court; here shown promenading with companions and her children at the gardens at Marly, the smaller, more informal royal chateau near Versailles, to which only the king's closest companions were invited. Moreau depicts the elegant group dressed in the latest Parisian fashions, with one of the women shown from behind to highlight the beautifully embellished back of her silk robe a la française and elaborate coiffure adorned with feathers.