Figure 1.--This image shows James Martin probably around 1895, perhaps a few years later in a dark tunic sailor suit with an enbroidered white dicky. He wears the samr curls as befre breeching, but thw white hair now has been removed. Photo supplied courtesy of the RG collection. |
James in the portrait after breeching looks quite different, even though his curls are not cut, the hair bow has been removed. He now wears a natty blue sailor suit with a white enbroidered dicky. He wears the same long black stockings with strap shoes. His pose is quite similar to that inmany breeching portraits, unlike the carefully crafted pose in his before breeching portrait.
We have little infornation about James other than he is 5 years old. We believe he was an American boy, although adding the flowers was rather unusual for am American portrait. This presumably reflects his mother's artistic bent. The portraits may have been taken on his birthday, but we are not sure about that. The portraits probably tell us more about James' mother than Janes himself. We are not surewhat Janes thought about his breeching or different outfits. Some boys at age 5 began asking for more boyish clothes. We do not know if this was true in James' case. We do note that he had quite different expressions in the two images. Information on James, his mother, and the chronology of this image can be found on the main James Martin page.
We assume that the portraits commemorate the day he was breeched as they were taken before and after--presumably under the watchful direction of his teary-eyed mother. This may have been James's birthday, but in fact we do not know just what day Mrs. Martin has selected for James' breeching. Perhaos it was done justvbefore his 6th birthday, but James in the portrait looks ,ore like he is 5 than just turning 6 years old. And of course the breeching may have had nothing to do with his birthday.
The boy has long blond hair which is done in an unsual style for an American boy the 1890s. He has ringlets, but they fall well short of his shoulders. His hair before breeching was swept up to the crown of his hair in a style rather more common to a girl. It was crowned by an enormous white hair bow, a much larger one than normally worn by boys. It was usually girls that had the large hair bows. While his curls were not cut as part of the breeching process, the enormous hair bow was removed. We are struck with the rather unkempt look of James' hair in this portrait. Certainly not the carefully manicured look in the before breeching portrait. One has the idea that Mrs. Martin was so ovewealmed with the breeching procress and removing the hair bow that she could not put her heart into redoing James hair style properly. We do not know when James' curls were finally cut.
Several items of clothing that Janes is wearing here are worthy of comment. James' outfit raises a number if intraging questions about the dresses boys wore in the 19th century.
Hats were a very important part of people's outfits in the 19th and early 20th century, infact until after the 1950s. Boys with their usually small hairbows could usuaally wear hats. James with this enormous hair bow could not have. Now that his hair bow has been removed, James could wear a hat and his mother almost certainly would have purchased one for him. There is no indication from the portrait as to what type of hat he would have worn. A wide-brimmed sailor hat seems the most likely about 1895, but a variety of sailor caps were becoming increasingly popular.
James wears a fairly large locket before breeching. Lockets were very popular in the late 19th century, more for girls and women than boys. It was very common to put a portrait of a loved one inside. We do not know if his locket was put away as a keepsake or if he still wrears it under his dickey.
James new suit is a dark, probably navy blue, tunic style sailor suit worn with knee-length bloomer style pants. An ornamental black belt completes the outfit. These tunic-style suits were very popular in the late 1890s and 1900s. The traditional "V" sailor collar does not end at the normal location, but extends all the way down the tunic. It is trimmed in the tradituinal three stripes, only one is much larger. I'm not sure what the material is, but itvlooks to be a heavy wool fabric, perghaos serge or cheviot. The sleems are trimmed with too brass buttons. As is often the case for small boys, it was purchased in a slightly large size, notice how the sleeves are rather long.
James sailor tunic has a contrasting white dickey with a colored band around his neck. There is also a large embroidered anchor.
James weaes long black stockings. They are the same stockings he wore with his white shift before breeching.
James appears to be wearing patent leather strap shoes with what looks to be double straps. Somewhat more details is available here tan in the before breeching portrait.
Unlike many contemporary portraits, James does not have any boyhood props such as a ball or favorite toy. The only props are flowers and the flower arrangements are quite different in the before and after phase. Notice the pink coloring that has been adding to the flowers in the before breeching portrait. In the after breeching portrait here the flows are less prominent and have not been colorized.
The portrait of James in his sailor suitvis unremarkable, looking like enumerable studio portraits of boys in sailor suits. While a minority of boys wore curls in the 1890s, it was still a common fashion for younger boys.
It does not appear to HBC that he has all that excited about the idea of breeching and wearing his new sailor suit. Then again that can be said about many of these before and after breeching sets.
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