Fashion in the Service of Power. Politics and Propaganda on European Fans of the Modern Era

Jolanta Różalska

Abstract

Modern fans used as carriers of information have been dedicated two exhibitions at The Fan Museum in Greenwich. The first of them: A Fanfare for the Sun King. Unfolding Fans for Louis XIV was held in 2003 (catalogue authored by Pamela Cowen). The second, mounted in 2018, was titled Early Printed Fans (catalogue by Hélène Alexander). The use of fans for political propaganda was at the time connected with social transformations and the increasing spread of printing technology and reproductions. This enabled manufacturing objects of wide reach with  cheap paper mounts featuring decoration repeatable in many copies. The paper’s focus is on those objects produced in England and France in the 17^th and 18^th centuries (except for the period spanning the French Revolution).

In France under Louis XIV propaganda messages were addressed to courtiers, aristocrats, foreign diplomats, and future generations. The glory of the ruler was proclaimed by hand-painted fans. Their leaves illustrate events from the King’s life important for the country: his wedding with Maria Theresa of Austria (1660), feast on the Dauphin’s birth (1662), marriage of the royal grandson Louis, Duke of Burgundy, to Marie Adélaïde of Savoy (1697), episodes of the War of Devolution (1667–1668) and of the Dutch War (1672–1678), reception of the Persian embassy at Versailles (1715), ceremonious unveiling of the monument of Louis XIV in Paris (1686), or the fete on the Grand Canal at Versailles (ca 1676). Among the circles of the Huguenots hostile to the King there were fans created mocking the King. The Fan Museum boasts a fan with the printed mount caricaturing the role of France in the 1681 international crisis.

As of the second half of the 17^th century, more abstract symbolism was used in the fan decoration. Propaganda fans of that period feature simple skeletal framework of cheap materials and modest mount decoration, often reduced to a single centrally-placed decorative element. Their ascetical character resulted from the rationalist intelectual revolution. Those who commissioned fans aimed at reaching a wide range of recipients who in the face of the egalitarianism taking on shape had an increasingly greater impact on politics and social life. The Fan Museum boasts a wide range of English and French fans from 1660–1805. On them the rulers (George III in England, Louis XVI in France) are presented as citizens of merit, victorious commanders, and shrew diplomats, consolidating the power of their respective countries through beneficial marriages. In the Enlightenment era, the King and his family are no longer presented in official portraits only, but also as participants of social, scientific, and cultural events (visiting art galleries, attending concerts or hot-air balloon shows). The dynasty position is also strengthened by references to native historiography.

Moreover, fan mounts feature national heroes as role models for social attitudes. In England, it is Admiral Horatio Nelson. Among such there are also anti-heroes, e.g., the Governor of East India and Administrator of the East India Company Warren Hastings accused of economic crime and corruption. Furthermore, fans also show compositions promoting glorious events from the most recent history as well as allegories of concepts new to public life. The example of the symbolic presentation of a political pact and the concept of equality can be found in the English fan commemorating the foundation of the United Kingdom (1801).

The conducted overview of the political iconographic motifs allows to trace the artistic route which fan manufacturers covered. It also illustrates the evolution of human mentality and awareness: from the apotheosis of absolute royal power to promoting democratic ideas Moreover, it shows how the circle of the addressees of political propaganda changed.