Delphos Gown - The Delphos As Art

The Delphos As Art

Fortuny's garments, particularly the Delphos gown, have been valued for their artistic and aesthetic qualities since their creation. The fashion historian and writer Colin McDowell considers Fortuny one of the creators of fashion as art, and a Delphos gown is one of only two garments contained in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

During the 1910s and 1920s the Spanish painter Joaquín Sorolla painted several portraits of his wife and other sitters wearing Delphos gowns, some of which are preserved at the Museo Sorolla. The sculptor Hamo Thornycroft described his daughter Elfrida as looking lovely in a 'silk Greek clinging white dress', a Delphos which Elfrida later donated to the Victoria and Albert Museum.

In literature, Marcel Proust described Fortuny's clothes several times in his epic novel In Search of Lost Time, comparing them to musical harmonies, although not explicitly calling them art.