Figure 1.--This miniture of an English boy was painted by Edwin Dalton Smith in 1834. He looks to be wearing a olive green velvet dress with a low neckline. Note that even though he has not been breeched that he does have a short hair cut. |
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The 1830s was the last decade in which we had to rely on paintings and illustratuins. Photograph appeared iat the end of the decade, but are very rare. We notice several portaits of younger boys wearing dresses which look essentially the same as the dresses younger girls would have worn. We see somewhat older school-age boys wearing tunics with large collars and bows. We also notice military styled caps with tassles.
This English boy was painted by Edwin Dalton Smith. The portrait is signed and dated in 1834. Unfortunately we do not know the boy's identity, but he clearly came from a well-to-do family. He looks to be about 6 years old to HBC. A HBC reader suggests, "I think in the 1800s children were smaller than they are these days. He could be 6 or 7 years old." The gallery offering this painting though that he was older and suggested 10 years, but HBC thinks this unlikely as he appears to still be wearing a dress. While some boys in the early 19th century might still werar dresses, especially boys from wealthy families, HBC thinks this boy was younger. He is posed with his pet dog. He looks to be wearing an olive green velvet dress with a low neckline and slightly puffed sleeves. There is a trace of a white undershirt of some kind. While the boy is not yet breeched, he does have a short hair cut.
Here we see an unidentified water color. Unfortunately both the artist and subject are unidentified. We do know that it was painted in 1836 which is helpful. The boy wears a low-cut blue dress with lace edgeing and ballon sleeves. He also wears white patalettes, white socks, and strap shoes. The biy looks to be about 5-6 years old. While the child is unidentified, the short hair and side part, whip, and stick horse all suggest a boy to us. Note that the dress here is just the same style a girl might wear, although a girl might wear fancier pantalettes.
This is a wonderful folky watercolour portrait of a boy standing on the seashore. He is wearing a black tunic with a broad belt at the waist and a deep white collar tied with a blue ribbon, over trousers. He's holding a large peaked hat. His costume is truly typical of the 1830s.There is a family tree inscription on the reverse of the portrait that identifies the child as Jethro Scowcroft (1829-1880), son of Thomas Scowcroft. Jethro was may be about 7 or 8 years old when this portrait was painted, but probably less than 10 years. The portrait is watercolor on card.
Thomas is named on the reverse of the wonderful silhouette as Thomas Hardwick (the brother of Mrs Fanny Upton). Thomas is an American boy, although we do not know where in America he is from. He looks to be wearing a dress with with a cape and large white collar. He was probably about 5 years old when the
silhouette was made which would date it to about 1840-41. It seems poor Thomas died at school in Roundhay, Leeds in 1850 when he was just 14 years old.
Ambrose Turner was an English boy born in November 1835. He was the youngest son in the family. We believe that the Turner family was an affluent family, but have no specific detais. We do not know much about him at this time. He died in 1910. ll that we know about how Ambrose was dressed as a boy is a combination underwear garment his mother Ann Turner made for him when he was about 4 years old in 1939 or 40. Unfortunately we do not have a portrait of Ambrose. Photography was not yet a viable commercial process. As far as we know no painted portrait exists. Thus we do not know know how Ambrose was dressed. A age 4 he might not have been breeched and may have still worn dresses. Or he might have worn a skeleton suit or though in 1840 they were going out of style. The low neck-line suggests to us that this combination outfit was worn with dresses, but we do not know enough about early and mid-19th century underwear to be sure about this.
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