Stock-jobbing in the Palais-Royal, Year VII - 1799

A woman is depicted waiting outside of a group of men, guarded by a one-legged soldier. As the description says, they are stock-jobbing, or buying and selling speculative stocks, with little regard for the value of the capital of the company, simply to make a fast and easy profit. This practice was popularized in the 18th century by the English bourgeois. The woman wears a fitted coat, resembling a man's English hunting coat. At this period, London was increasingly the center of men's fashion, as manifested by its influence on the still-dominant Parisian women's fashion. This women's dress is somewhat frillier and wider than the neo-classical 'chemise,' as women's dresses became more ornate as the 19th century progressed.