Marie-Françoise Corot (1768–1851) was a French

fashion designer Fashion is a form of self-expression and autonomy at a particular period and place and in a specific context, of clothing, footwear, lifestyle, accessories, makeup, hairstyle, and body posture. The term implies a look defined by the fashion in ...

(

milliner Hat-making or millinery is the design, manufacture and sale of hats and other headwear. A person engaged in this trade is called a milliner or hatter. Historically, milliners, typically women shopkeepers, produced or imported an inventory of g ...

), known as one of the most fashionable of her trade in the first decades of the 19th-century. She was the daughter of a Swiss merchant, married the French wig maker Louis-Jacques Corot (1771–1847) in 1793 and became the mother of the artist

Camille Corot Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot ( , , ; July 16, 1796 – February 22, 1875), or simply Camille Corot, is a French landscape and portrait painter as well as a printmaker in etching. He is a pivotal figure in landscape painting and his vast o ...

. She had been the student of a milliner before her marriage, and after her marriage she opened her own milliner business. She was successful enough that in 1798, her spouse discontinued his own business just to handle the economy of her business. During the First Empire, she was a fashionable milliner in Paris and second only to the famous

Madame Herbault Madame Herbault (early 19th century), was a French fashion designer (milliner). Madame Herbault was an established fashion designer during the First Empire, when she was the most fashionable milliner in Paris, and she continued to enjoy a fashiona ...

, the milliner of empress Josephine, who was described as her main rival and competitor. Her fame and success continued during the entire

Bourbon Restoration in France The Bourbon Restoration was the period of French history during which the House of Bourbon returned to power after the first fall of Napoleon on 3 May 1814. Briefly interrupted by the Hundred Days War in 1815, the Restoration lasted until the J ...

. Gary Tinterow, Michael Pantazzi, Vincent Pomarède, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais (France), Musée des beaux-arts du Canada (Ottawa, Ont.)., National Gallery of Canada, Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.):
p. Corot
' (New York, N.Y.)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Corot, Marie-Francoise 1768 births 1851 deaths 19th-century French businesswomen French fashion designers French women fashion designers French milliners Milliners People of the First French Empire People of the Bourbon Restoration 18th-century French businesswomen