18th Century Women’s Riding Habits
Additional Resources
Dress diaries and blog postings:
brocadegoddess, costumediva, mantuadiary, nerdyhistorygirls
On dressing the part: The Ubiquitous Riding Habit
“Walking Amazons: The Development of the Riding Habit in England during the Eighteenth Century” in Costume #35
Patterns of Fashion 1: Englishwomen’s dresses and their construction, 1660-1860
Reconstructing History riding habit patterns: 1670s-1720s, 1730s-1760s, 1770s-1780s, 1790s-1810s
- V&A T.197-1984, a brown worsted jacket lined with linen and silk, England, 1750s
- V&A T.554-1993, a brown wool jacket with metal braid, England, 1750s
- V&A T.12-1957, a blue camlet jacket lined with silk, England, 1750s
- Met 1976.147.1, a brown riding coat in silk and goat hair, Britain, c. 1760
- V&A 269 to B-1890, a riding habit in red wool with silver braid, c. 1770-1775
- Met 1981.14.2, a riding waistcoat in silk and linen, Britain, c. 1775
- Met 1976.147.2, a blue riding coat in silk and goat hair, Britain, c. 1775
- LACMA M.82.16.2a-c, riding habit in watered silk faille, Venice, c. 1780
- Rijksmuseum BK-1978-250, a redingote in embroidered silk satin, c. 1785
- V&A T.190-1961, red wool waistcoat lined and backed with linen, England, 1790-1795
Portraits of women in riding habits
- Marie-Adélaïde of Savoy
- Equestrian portrait of Marie-Louise-Elisabeth d'Orléans (The Duchess of Berry in hunting-costume in 1710)
- Elisabeth Christine of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel
- Lucy Pelham-Holles, Countess of Lincoln, by Sir Godfrey Kneller, 1722
- Anne, Princess of Orange
- Madame Gaspard de Péleran by Jean-Etienne Liotard, 1738
- Sophie Marie Gräfin Voss by Antoine Pesne, 1746
- A lady in a riding habit by Enoch Seeman
- Lady in a riding dress
- Princess Anna Amalia of Prussia
- Posthumous portrait of Louise Elisabeth de France, daughter of Louis XV, by Jean-Marc Nattier, 1760
- The Countess of Coning by George Stubbs, c. 1760
- Mrs. Epes Sargent II (Catherine Osborne) by John Singleton Copley, 1764
- October, 1767
- The Drummond Family by Johann Joseph Zoffany, c. 1769
- Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Coltman by Joseph Wright, c. 1770-1772
- Reynard’s Last Shift, 1770s
- Marie Antoinette, 1771
- A Soft Tumble after a Hard Ride, c. 1775-1785
- Lady Worsley by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1776
- La Recontreau bois de Boulogne by Moreau le Jeune
- John and Sophia Musters riding at Colwick Hall by George Stubbs, 1777
- Nancy Fortesque by Thomas Hudson
- Coxheath ho! by James Bretherton, 1779
- Jeune Dame montant à cheval; elle est habillée en homme avec un fraque à bavaroise, et une juppe, 1779
- October
- Veste retroussée à l'Amazone, Revers tigrés en fourures, Chapeau à la Jokei orné de guirlandes et aigretes folettes, 1787
- Marie Antoinette by Adolf Ulrik Wertmuller, 1788
- Woman in a redingote in The Squire’s Door by Benjamin Duterreau after George Morland, 1790
- Mrs. William Moseley with her son Charles by Ralph Earl, 1791
- Laetitia, Lady Lade by George Stubbs, 1793
- Riding habits in 1799
