Figure 1.-- Here we have a portrait of a boy dressed in a fashionable sailor suit in 1911. We do not know anything about the arist. He may be Czech. The boy may be Austrian or perhaps Czech. There were of course many similarities between Austrian, Czech, and German styles so without knowing the artist it probably is not possible to tell the difference. The artist is competent, but not a great master. The fact that the family had a painted portrait done suggests that the family was affluent, but probanly not rich because of the quality pf the portrit.

Here we have a portrait of a boy dressed in a fashionable sailor suit in 1911. We do not know anything about the artist. We woyld guess the boy was either Austrian or Czech. There were of course many similarities between Austrian and German styles so without knowing the artist it probably is not possible to tell the difference. The artist is competent, but not a great master. The fact that the family had a painted portrait done suggests that the family was affluent, but probanly not rich because of the quality pf the portrit. The sailor suit is stylish, perhaps done in velvet. There are some interesting features to the sailor suit. The color painting in particular is helpful and almost all of our images are black and white.

Artist

The portrait is signed with a prominant signature. The signature seems to read Tone Cefi, althought I am not sure. A reader tells us that it would be written "Tone Čeh". We thought it might be Czech. Our reader thinks the artist might be Slovak or Slovenian. Perhaps a reader will be able to tell more from the name. We have not been able to find any information on this artist, understandable because he is not a really important, skilled atist. Of course he is important for HBC because he painted the boy's outfit in such detail. I am not even sure what nationality that would be, perhaps Czech. There seems to be an accent over the "e" in Cefi. Could that be one of the languages spoken in the Austro-Hungariam Empire, there are many possibilities (Czech, Slovak, Slovenian or Serbo-Croatian. The artist is competent, but not a great master. Some portraits were done from a photographic studio photograph. Photographic studios offered this service. This looks to us, however, like a painted portrait done from scratch at home.

Location

One source thought it might be Austrian. It could have been painted any where in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The boy could have been Austrian or one of the ethnic groups that made up the Empire. Individuals could travel freely within the Empire. So while the artist seems to be from one of the non-German ethnic groups, he could still have painted this portrait in Vienna or Budapest. So we have no idea where it was painted. There were of course many similarities between Austrian and German styles so the styling of the sailor suit offers no clues. The sellers suggest that the boy might be a Vienna Choir Boy, but this is unlikely because the vienna choir boys started wearing sailor suits only after World War I. Of course he may be a Vienna boy.

Chronology

The one thing we know about this portrait is that it was painted in 1911 which we know because the artist signed and dated the portrait..

Boy

Here we have a portrait of a boy dressed in a fashionable sailor suit. He is unidentified. He could be Austrian or perhaps the same nationality as the artist. We would guess he is about 8-9 years old. The fact that the family had a painted portrait done suggests that the family was affluent, but probanly not rich because of the quality pf the portrit.

Clothing

The sailor suit is stylish, perhaps done in velvet. There are some interesting features to the sailor suit. The color painting in particular is helpful and almost all of our images are black and white. Note that the suit here is black and not navt blue, although interestingly the stockings look to be navy. I can think of no reason for painting the stockings and pants differently than that he was accurately depicting the color. Note the stiff setachable collar added to the sailot collar. The suit has a styilized design. Note that it does not have the classiv "V" design of a traditional sailor suit. Also note the red scarfe which is not knotted in the vey carefull style seen in many German and Austrian portraits. The pants are bloomer knickers and he wears long stovkings with them. The shoes are a little difficult to make out.

Hair Cut

The boy has very close-cropped hair. Notice how cloesly cropped. This was a very common hair cut for German and Austrian boys at the time. It was not, however, a common style in painted portraits. That is because there were social class connotations. It seems to have been more common with wrling-class boys than affluent middle-class boys. An exception here might be boys with families that had a military heritage.

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Created: 7:20 PM 3/24/2007
Last updated: 3:59 AM 3/25/2007