Petrus Christus | 1449 | Oil on oak panel | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Christus was a leading Flemish artist of the Northern Renaissance. He ascribed to the tradition of illusionism, a style which sought to depict subjects and space realistically while also seemingly "sharing" that space with the viewer.

Here, a couple are depicted shopping for a wedding ring. The hats they wear were typical for the time period across Northern Europe, England, and France. The butterfly headdress worn by the woman is also referred to as a hennin or reticulated headdress.

Leonardo da Vinci | 1489-91 | Oil on wood | Czartoryski Museum, Krakow

Da Vinci was one of the foremost artists and inventors of the Italian Renaissance. The painting shown here is of Cecilia Gallerani, lover to the Duke of Milan.

Cecilia is depicted wearing her hair in the more typical style of Southern Europe, mainly Spain and Italy. This style consisted of center-parted hair drawn into a long coil or coazzone (sometimes wrapped in cloth), a fine silk or linen hairnet (usually embroidered) placed at the back of head, and a headband or lenza placed across the forehead.

Agnolo di Cosimo di Mariano Bronzino | 1530s | Oil on wood | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Bronzino was a Florentine painter and poet renowned for his mannerist style and elegant portraits during the high Italian Renaissance. Although the subject of this work remains unknown, he is thought to have belonged to Bronzino’s close group of literary friends and is pictured holding a volume of poetry.

The hat the young man is wearing is best described as a soft beret, probably made of velvet, embellished with beads or stones.

Peter Paul Rubens | 1626 | Oil on oak | The National Gallery, London
Rubens is often called "Prince of Baroque painters." In his style he successfully united the features of Northern (Flemish) Renaissance art with those of Italy. His influence on the painters of his century was enormous, as it was on sculpture and architecture.

This is generally believed to be the portrait of Susanna Lunden, to whom Rubens was related to via marriage. She is pictured wearing a wide-brimmed dress hat adorned with feathers.

François Boucher | 1766 | Oil on canvas | National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Boucher was a French painter famous for his work in the Rococo style, known for its idyllic, pastoral scenes and pastel palette. The subject is widely believed to be the first Madame Bergeret, Marguerite Josèphe Richard.

Madame Bergeret is seen holding a bergère style hat (French for "shepherdess"). This popular style of the time is also known as milkmaid or skimmer styles.

Jean Louis Ernest Meissonier | 1864 | Oil on wood | Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Meissonier, a French artist and dedicated nationalist, is most well-known for his military and warfare paintings as well his penchant for Napoleonic imagery.

Here, he depicts Napoleon and his staff returning from Soissons after the battle of Laon (this is not the retreat from Moscow as is often assumed). The "cocked hats" or bicorns pictured here, along with tricorns (worn both in military and civilian life), preceded top hats as the felt hat of choice for men of means.

Claude Monet | 1867 | Oil on canvas | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

This 1867 work by Monet is the earliest European art work (that we are aware of), depicting a Panama straw hat. Although a misnomer, ("Panama'' hats actually hail from Ecuador - read our Iconic Hats Blog for more) Panama straw hats became important trade items in the mid-19th century and, quickly thereafter, a must-have fashion in Europe and the Eastern USA. 

Monet's seated gentleman appears to be wearing a Gambler style Panama hat, which remains fashionable today.

Eastman Johnson | 1874 | Oil on board | San Diego Museum of Art

This work by American genre painter Eastman Johnson caught our founder’s attention. The painting was done circa 1874, pre-dating the introduction of the sun visor by a couple decades. The hat, however, is functioning almost exclusively as a sun visor - note the shadow on the woman's face. It seems the subject has changed the hat on her head from its intended position so that it serves as an aid to her reading. A perfect example of form following function in headwear.

Édouard Manet | 1874 | Oil on canvas | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Together with Monet, Renoir, Degas, and others, Manet was at the forefront of the modernist Impressionist movement - characterized by its bright colors, broken brushstrokes, and emphasis on light.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the men's straw skimmer (aka boater) became synonymous with summer leisure. Manet, as well as other artists of the time, use the skimmer as a symbol of the good life and the emergence of "leisure" as a right and privilege for all.

Edgar Degas | 1878-79 | Pastel on paper, pieced, and laid down on canvas | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Degas, unlike his Impressionist contemporaries, favored indoor scenes illuminated by artificial light rather than plein-air scenes. This scene depicts three gentleman at the stock exchange in full dress, including felt top hats. 

By the early 1800s, the top hat had supplanted the cocked hat or bi/tricorn. In 1890 the St. James Gazette wrote, "When we are told, 'He's a fellow who wears a top hat and a frock coat,' we know sufficiently well what sort of fellow he is."

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | 1881 | Oil on canvas | Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

Renoir was renowned for favoring joyous scenes of modern life. Here he paints two lovely young women against the bucolic background of Chatou and the Seine on a bright spring day. Despite its title, the two girls are not actually related. The identity of the younger remains unknown, however, the elder is believed to have been Jeanne Darlot who later became an actress.

The girls are depicted wearing what seem to be felt or fabric hats, brims upturned at the front, and adorned with flowers.

Vincent van Gogh | 1889 | Oil on canvas | Museum of Modern Art, New York

In 1888, van Gogh moved to Arles in the South of France with the intention of starting an artist’s cooperative. There, he befriended Joseph Roulin and his family, became close, and painted them often. At this time, van Gogh, influenced by Paul Gaugin, was exploring “the modern portrait" - seeking to express the subject’s character via color and painting from intuitive memory rather than observation. 

Here, van Gogh depicts Roulin, proud postal worker, in his uniform against a lush floral background. Roulin is wearing a cadet cap.

Paul Cézanne| 1890-92 | Oil on canvas | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

One of the greatest Post-Impressionists, Cézanne is thought to have heavily influenced art movements that followed in the 20th century including Cubism and Fauvism. He is renowned for his ability to “build form” with color via contrast, thickly applied paint, and a darker palette. One of a series of five, this work is considered one of his finest figure compositions. 

Four men are pictured - three playing cards and one observing. The men wear felt hats including a crumpled fedora (left), bowlers/derbys (center & standing), and a homburg/godfather (right).

Max Ernst | 1920 | Gouache, pencil, oil, and ink on cut-and-pasted printed paper on board | The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Ernst is most closely associated with Surrealism, an early 1900s movement which prized the unconscious and irrational over logic and reality. Techniques like frottage gave organic, singular results over which the artist had little control. Ernst is known to have said: “[I] came to assist as spectator at the birth of all my works.” 

Here, Ernst painted over a women’s millinery (hat) catalog adding other cutouts to create treelike forms charged with innuendo. Included are women’s felt boaters and wide-brimmed hats.

Walker Evans | 1938 | Gelatin silver print | National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

Evans is the father of the American documentary photography tradition. His Subway Portrait series consisted of 89 covert photographs documenting New York City subway riders between 1938 - 1941 as they went about their day, guards completely down. 

This family on the subway, like virtually anyone in those days, wear their fashionable hats as comfortably and naturally as they wear any other apparel. His classic fedora hat was de rigueur in the 1930s and 1940s.

Pablo Picasso | 1955 | Oil on canvas | Private Collection

Picasso had many loves throughout his life that inspired his work. Jacqueline Roque was Picasso’s second wife and muse. For the last twenty years of Picasso’s life, Jacqueline provided steadfast support and inspiration, giving rise to his most prolific period. A constant presence throughout this period, Jacqueline’s likeness appears in over 200 portraits and imbued many of his other feminine depictions. 

Here she is pictured in Turkish garb complete with veil and a stylized fez hat.

Rene Magritte | 1959 |Oil on canvas | Private Collection

Magritte, a well-known Surrealist, sought to “challenge the real world” by depicting ordinary objects and subjects in ways that challenged perception. The bowler or derby hats the men are wearing here was created in 1850. Books have been written (literally) about the symbolic significance of this apparel item and its relationship to the Modern Age.

Magritte is not alone in using the bowler/derby as an icon in art, theater, or literature. For more on this read The Man in the Bolwer Hat: His History and Iconography by Fred Miller Robinson.