The Incroyables and their female counterparts, the Merveilleuses, were members of a fashionable aristocratic subculture in Paris during the French Directory. Whether as catharsis or in a need to recon
Picture from Les Français sous la Révolution by Augustin Challamel & Wilhelm Ténint
Portrait of a Lady, in Neoclassical style, c. 1799
Cafe des Incroyables, 1797
Painting of the three glamorous and eyebrow-raising Parisian socialites, the merveilleuses Thérésa Tallien, Juliette Récamier and Joséphine de Beauharnais.
Thérésa Tallien
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Thérésa Cabarrus, Madame Tallien, later Princess of Chimay was a Spanish-born French noblewoman and socialite, who is known as a fashion icon and a famous Salonnière during the Directory period Paris.
Incroyables and merveilleuses
…of pearls. Exotic and expensive scents fabricated by perfume houses like Parfums Lubin were worn both for style and as indicators of social station. Thérésa Tallien, known as "Our Lady of Thermidor", wore expensive rings on the toes of her bare feet and gold circlets on her legs. The Incroyables wore eccentric…
Portrait of Madame Tallien, by Jean-Bernard Duvivier, 1806
Citizen Tallien in a cell in La Force Prison, by Jean-Louis Laneuville, 1796. Her hair has been cut short and she is holding her locks in her hands.
James Gillray's caricature of 1805. Paul Barras being entertained by the naked dancing of two wives of prominent men, Thérésa Tallien and Joséphine Bonaparte
When Princesse de Chimay, by François Gérard, 1804