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Directoire style
French society dressed in Directoire style, playing the card game Bouillotte.
Directoire style
art
Directoire style, Neoclassical style of dress, furniture, and ornament popular in France during the period of the Directory (1795–99). Dress for men, mixing ancient and contemporary elements, featured trousers and high boots, vests, long, open coats, and top hats. Women dressed in chemises that had long sleeves and V-shaped necklines, and they wore ruffled caps gathered around the ears, as in Jacques-Louis David’s portraits of Madame and Monsieur de Sériziat (1795).
Directoire styleModel of a Directoire bathroom and boudoir in the Pompeiian style, adapted from designs by François-Joseph Bélanger; in the Art Institute of Chicago.
Furniture and ornaments stressed elongated, simple shapes with clear lines; the Directoire style’s sparse detail and ornamentation were based mostly on ancient Roman objects recovered from excavations at Pompeii. Directoire furniture was the last phase of the Louis XVI style.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen.
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