Fanny Seward's dress

[Linda Anderson]

My avatar is a posthumous painting of Fanny Seward by Emanuel Leutze.

Betty alerted me to a Seward House Museum Facebook posting on the dress and the painting. Thank you, Betty!

"This dress, which we keep safely in storage except on special occasion (like this Saturday for the Fanny Seward tour!), belonged to William Seward's daughter, Fanny. The entire costume seems to be highly customizable to adapt for many occasions. There is only one skirt, which is very full with a bustle in the back, but then there is a jacket, two blouses, and a pair of net sleeves. There is a lot of lavender taffeta, boning, netting, lace, and velvet...

"This post is about the dress, but I'll tell you a little bit about the Leutze portrait as well. If we were to look at this painting in 1866, we would immediately know that it is a postmortem portrait based on the visual clues. I do not know what they all are or what exactly they mean, but the ominous sky, the one white (gloved?) hand, the downward facing bouquet, and the morning glory would all tell us something about her death. Fanny's sister-in-law Anna actually modeled for Leutze, and Fanny's face was based on a recent photograph."

https://www.facebook.com/SewardHouseMuse...0&filter=1