Franz Xaver Winterhalter
Got the answer to some questions I asked of the Masquerade Directors, FYI.
First, is about our Winterhalter — yes, his costume needs to go through workmanship judging, even though he’s really a ‘prop’ for the presentation and what we’d planned for him to wear is more theatrical than documentably historical.
Kendra, Sarah, and I had talked and were going to dress Thomas as a standard “painter” in a smock (Sarah has an off-white renaissance shirt), pants (Thomas’ own modern black pants), and a beret (store-bought). Sarah also has a painter’s palette and we have brushes. I have an easel.
Clearly, we won’t win any workmanship points with this. If we cared, we *could* dress him more like Winterhalter, e.g., 1850s middle-class European man at work.
But that would be a lot more work that none of us really have time for! And as far as workmanship judging goes, we already have things like purchased corsets and hoops, so as a group, we’re not winning major awards there.
Imo, we do need the painter for the presentation — he turns a random group of pretty ladies into a portrait! And heck, we might have a chance at a presentation award then (if anyone cares about that sort of thing ;-).