Psyché: Robe du Soir, de Worth

This hand-colored pochoir print from the Gazette du Bon Ton depicts an elegant evening gown by the couturier Worth through classical allegory. A draped female figure holds aloft an oil lamp—Psyche's iconic attribute from Greco-Roman mythology—while cypress trees and a marble column frame the composition. The work exemplifies the fashion illustration tradition that evolved from 19th-century color printing and caricature culture. This elegant plate serves the luxury goods market, using mythological reference to elevate fashion design. The pochoir technique—hand-stenciled color application—offered precision and luminosity unavailable to earlier printmaking methods, reflecting modernist refinement in both artistic and commercial visual culture.