Pulp Fashion: The Art of Isabelle de Borchgrave

By Marsha Heiman

Graduate of the program 2006

Do try to see the exhibit “Pulp Fashion: The Art of Isabelle de Borchgrave,” if

you live in the San Francisco area or are visiting there. A painter by training,

the Belgian artist now works in paper to recreate masterpieces of clothing, either

those depicted in paintings or exhibited in museums as icons of fashion history.

I particularly loved her interpretations of Victorian and Fortuny gowns, and the

velvet/pomegranate gown worn by Eleanor of Toledo in the painting by Bronzino.

The exhibit will be at The Legion of Honor Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco through June 5th.

Eleanor of Toledo (and detail), 2006, inspired by a ca. 1545 portrait of Eleanor and her son Giovanni de’ Medici by Agnolo Bronzino in the collection of the Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Photo: René Stoeltie.

Isabelle de Borchgrave, sketch for Eleanor of Toledo, 2006, inspired by a ca. 1545 portrait of Eleanor and her son Giovanni de’ Medici by Agnolo Bronzino in the collection of the Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Photo courtesy Créations Isabelle de Borchgrave

Portrait of Eleanor of Toledo and her Son, Giovanni de Medici, c.1544-45 (tempera on panel) by Bronzino, Agnolo (1503-72) tempera on panel 115x96 Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, Italy

Isabelle de Borchgrave and studio collaborators at work on a piece inspired by Agnolo Bronzino’s portrait of Eleanor of Toledo, 2006. Photo: Courtesy Créations Isabelle de Borchgrave

***All images are from the Legion of Honor website, too see more from this exhibition go to http://legionofhonor.famsf.org/legion/exhibitions/pulp-fashion-art-isabelle-de-borchgrave