Monument du Costume

This work was inspired by a Jean Michel Moreau drawing, ‘La Declaration de la Grossesse’ or, The Disclosure of Pregnancy (c.1775). An illustration that would be printed in the “Suites D'estampes Pour Servir a L'histoire Des Modes et Du Costume Des Francois Dans le XVIIIe Siecle” or, The Monument du Costume, published in 1775. Lowe has referenced several fragments of this work including the reticule and fire screen, the decorative table and chairs, and two of the characters who presumably represent the grandmother-to-be and the mother’s physician. The physician’s clothes have been fleshed-out in the manner of John Singer Sargent, resembling a costume of the artist’s ‘Portrait of Carolus-Duran’ (c.1879). Lowe replaced the expectant mother with an embracing nude couple after ‘Adam and Eve’ by Henry Fuseli (c.1799). The backdrop for this scene was inspired by the red dragon in a hellish, surrealistic landscape drawing of ‘The Temptation of St Anthony’ by Jacques Callot (c.1617). However, the expansive hellscape has been painted out to accommodate the ethereal domestic environment for this annunciation.