Henry Somm

Born in Rouen, Somm got his start there illustrating journals with depictions of urban life and work before he moved to Paris in 1869, where he continued work for periodicals. Degas invited him to exhibit drawings in the Fourth Impressionist Exhibition of 1879, and by the 1880s, he had found his niche with watercolors, prints, and illustrations, many featuring contemporary women in fashionable dress. He had a penchant for humor (see 2009.298) and a curiosity for Japanese art and dolls.
A woman carrying an umbrella and small handbag, wearing a high-necked, leg-of-mutton sleeved blouse over a skirt, topped with a hat adorned with a tall pile of feathers, walks in the opposite direction of the carriage in the background, and the couple behind her, who seem to head to an outdoor performance at a café concert. As the size of bustles began to decrease in the late 1880s, the 1890s ushered in a revival of the leg-o-mutton (gigot) sleeve, a fashion that originated in the 1820s and 1830s. The vogue for large sleeves peaked by the middle of the decade, suggesting a date for this watercolor.