Peter Paul Rubens | 1600-1625 | Oil on canvas | Le Louvre, Paris

For all of human existence, headwear has represented power and status. Marie de' Medici (pictured), in order to increase her power, demanded that King Henry IV of France allow her a separate coronation.

We are impressed by the profound significance this moment holds - a crown is placed on a head and the whole political world changes. King Henry IV was assassinated the very next day (May 14th, 1610); Marie ruled as regent until 1617.

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn | 1640 | Oil on canvas | The National Gallery, London

Despite being one of Rembrandt’s most famous self-portraits, it is, above all else, a statement on his place in history and a work of illusion. Although Rembrandt was Dutch and lived in the 17th century, he depicts himself in the dress of a wealthy gentleman in the 16th century. By doing so he was claiming a higher social status than that typically allotted to artists at the time, and on par with his wealthy clientele.
He is dressed in fine velvet and fur. His hat consists of a fine velvet beret laced with jewels.

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn | 1642 | Oil on canvas | Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Kassel

Rembrandt depicts his beloved wife, Saskia, here. Although Rembrandt started this painting soon after their short marriage in 1634, he did not complete it until after her death in 1642. Of all the other paintings and sketches he made of Saskia, this is the only one showing her in profile view. 

She is seen lavishly dressed in red velvet and gold, with a large red velvet hat encrusted with jewels and 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.

Thomas Gainsborough | 1785 | Oil on canvas | The National Gallery, London

Thomas Gainsborough was an English painter and one of the founders of the Royal Academy. He was sought after for his portraits of fashionable and wealthy - often royal - subjects. As such, he had much influence over feminine fashion. 

Mrs. Siddons is pictured wearing the famed “Gainsborough” hat with a low crown,  wide brim turned up at one side, trimmed with plumes and taffeta or velvet ribbon, and designed to cover elaborate headdresses.

James Abbott McNeill Whistler | 1871 | Oil on canvas | Musée d'Orsay, Paris

American-born Whistler trained and worked in Paris and later London for most of his career. This 1871 oil painting is his most recognized work and one of the most famous paintings in the world by an American artist. It is now considered an icon of motherhood. 

Here, Mrs. Whistler is pictured in profile against an austere and angular backdrop. She is pictured wearing an everyday white lappet cap or bonnet typical of the period.

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

The summer of 1874 saw Impressionist masters Manet and Monet vacationing right across the Seine from each other. Their penchant for painting en plein air (French for “in open air” or “outdoors”) is evident in this happy domestic scene. 

Monet is pictured tending to the garden while his wife and son rest nearby. Monet appears to wear a felt fedora while his wife is seen wearing a decorative bonnet. Their young son, Jean, is pictured wearing a straw skimmer.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | 1876 | Oil on canvas | Musée d'Orsay, Paris

This painting of an outdoor dancehall during France’s Belle Époque is one of Impressionism's most well-known works and Renoir’s most important. Although many of his friends are positioned within, Renoir sought most to convey the lively and bustling atmosphere of the dancehall scene. 

Again, leisurely straw boater hats - in addition to more traditional felt bowler and top hats - can be seen on most gentlemen's heads. Women are shown wearing bonnets or straw hats.

Berthe Morisot | 1884 | Oil on canvas | Private Collection

Morisot - one of only four female members of the Impressionist circle - was the only woman invited to exhibit with the Société Anonyme des Artistes-Peintres, Sculpteurs, Graveurs in 1874 which later came to be referred to as the first Impressionist exhibition. Despite achieving critical recognition during her lifetime, most critics would focus on the “feminine” qualities of her work such as “intuitiveness” and “delicacy.” 

Here she depicts a woman and a girl floating along the Seine. Both are wearing what seem to be straw hats with adornments. 

Vincent van Gogh | 1887 | Oil on canvas | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Van Gogh, a Dutchman, was heavily influenced by the largely French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist techniques of broken brushstrokes and pointillism, respectively. Short on funds, the primarily self-taught van Gogh often resorted to self-portraits: "I purposely bought a good enough mirror to work from myself, for want of a model."

He painted at least twenty-four self-portraits in Paris between 1886-1888, including seven in which he wore a straw hat. The hat pictured here is most likely a straw fedora hat style.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec | 1892-93 | Lithograph printed in four colors, wove paper | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Toulouse-Lautrec, a French aristocrat and artist, is infamous for his love of and depictions of the nascent nightlife of 1890s Paris. His brief career coincided with the development of modern printmaking, through which he elevated the humble lithograph advertisement medium to high art. 

Here, Jane Avril and Édouard Dujardin are pictured at the Divan Japonais cabaret. Avril is wearing a dress hat similar to those designed by famed Parisian milliner Madame Virot, known to collaborate with well-known courtiers of the day.

Edvard Munch | 1894 | Oil on canvas | The Munch Museum, Oslo

Munch is reknown for his psychologically charged and emotionally expressive art. Influenced by Naturalism, Gaugin,  and van Gogh, Munch did not paint from observation: “I do not paint what I see, but what I saw.” Despite parallels to his most well-known work (Scream), Anxiety depicts collective despair and anxiety.

Anxiety also features clearly gendered subjects including a woman and group of men. Their garb includes felt top hats and bowler/derby hats for the men, and what appears to be a bonnet on the woman.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec | 1899 | Color lithograph on tan wove paper | The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

This work by Toulouse-Lautrec similarly spotlights his favorite subject matter of Parisian nightlife. Jane Avril, a lifelong friend, is again featured but this time, she is performing rather than an observing. Known for her acrobatic and graceful dancing, she was regarded by many contemporaries as the “incarnation of dance.” This is on full display as she is pictured twisting, arms up in feigned surrender as an applique snake “slithers” up her lithe body. 

Again, she is seen wearing a dramatic, Virot-like women’s dress hat adorned with large plumes.

Henri Matisse | 1905 | Oil on canvas | The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco

Matisse is one of the great masters of the early 20th century with a career spanning more than six decades consisting of painting, drawing, sculpture, graphic arts, and more. This work is largely credited with sparking the first avant-garde movement, Fauvism, (from the French “fauve” or “wild beast”) coined by a critic shocked by its seemingly arbitrary colors and frenetic brushwork. 

This is a half-length portrait of the artist’s own wife, Amélie Matisse. She is pictured from the side in full bourgeois dress including gloves and an elaborate dress hat.

Pablo Picasso | 1923 | Oil on canvas | Kunstmuseum Basel, Basel

Perhaps the most recognized artist by last name alone, Picasso is most famous for the co-creation of Cubism. He was, however, incredibly mutable and adaptable. His prolific career spanned over 80 years and included painting, drawings, sculptures, ceramics, and even poetry. He is largely considered the most influential artist of the 20th century. 

This early work is of Catalan painter, Jacinto Salvadó, posing as a seated harlequin or jester. He is dressed in a colorful patchwork costume topped with a bicorn-shaped cap.

Marc Chagall | 1923-24 | Oil on canvas | Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

Chagall’s work is uniquely his own and deeply imbued with his Jewish heritage and longing for his childhood home of Vitebsk in then Russia, now Belarus. His distinctive work borrowed elements from many avant-garde movements including Cubism, Fauvism, Surrealism, and others, but never fully "belonged" to one or the other. 

This painting features a floating fiddler against a dreamlike scene. He is dressed in traditional Hasidic garb topped with a fiddler or Greek fisherman style cap.

Jose Clemente Orozco | 1931 | Oil on canvas | The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Orozco formed part of Los tres grandes or “Big Three” of leading muralists in early 20th century Mexico, together with Rivera and Siqueiros. His style - best described as Social Realism - focused on depicting the post-Revolutionary life and struggle of the common Mexican. This solemn scene depicts Zapatistas - followers of Mexican Revolutionary War leader Zapata - marching to their death. They are dressed in peasant garb including straw sombreros (men) and cloth mantillas or shawls (women).