Artists: Sir Henry Raeburn -- Binning Children (Scotland, 1811)


Figure 1.--Here we see two brothers wearing matching skeleton suits, the Binning children. While we know their names, we do not yet know much about the family and the boys. Painted for the sitters' father, David Monro Binning [1776-1843], Argaty and Softlaw, Perthshire, Scotland; by inheritance to the elder son in the picture, George Home Monro Binning (1804-84). The boys wear skeleton suits with long pants that were the height of fashion in the 1810s. The jackets have an unsual three columns of buttons athr than the more common two rows foe double brasted styling. In this case they appear to be purly ornamental. Even the ener row does not seem to be closing devices. The material of the suit appears to be velvet. It is interesting to note that boys are almost always painted in skeleton suits during the early 19th century. Notice how short hair styles are the norm for boys. The colors do not look right to us. We expected a bright red. We hve, hwever, seen this color in other period images. We are not sure if this is an actual color or represents color shifts as a result of aging. Some versions show draber suits than the one here.

Here we see two brothers wearing matching skeleton suits, the Binning children. While we know their names, we do not yet know much about the family and the boys. Painted for the sitters' father, David Monro Binning [1776-1843], Argaty and Softlaw, Perthshire, Scotland; by inheritance to the elder son in the picture, George Home Monro Binning (1804-84). The boys wear skeleton suits with long pants that were the height of fashion in the 1810s. The jackets have an unsual three columns of buttons athr than the more common two rows foe double brasted styling. One boy is holding what looks like a blue beret type garment. In this case they appear to be purly ornamental. Even the center row does not seem to be closing devices. The material of the suit appears to be velvet. It is interesting to note that boys are almost always painted in skeleton suits during the early 19th century. Notice how short hair styles are the norm for boys. The colors do not look right to us. We expected a bright red. We hve, hwever, seen this color in other period images. We are not sure if this is an actual color or represents color shifts as a result of aging. Some versions showdraber suits than the one here.






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Created: 11:42 PM 1/16/2018
Last updated: 12:06 AM 1/17/2018