Figure 1.--This American brother and sister are dressed in similar, but not identical dresses and pantalettes. the painting is dated 1843, although we do not know the painter. Notice that while they are dressed similarly, they have very different hair syles. The girl has long ringlers, while her little brother has a short hair cut. Note the different styles of pantalettes that the two are wearing. The painting is in the Karolik Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

This American portrait of an American girl and her little brother was painted in 1843. Unfortunately we do not know the painter or the location. The children were dressed similarly. We do not know if the mother made a concicous effort to do this, but the similarities seem to pronounced to have been meerly accidental. Even so there are some major and more subtle differences in their outfits. Some of the differences were conventions of the 1840s while others were simply the preferences of their mother.

Chronology

The cuators at the Museum of Fine Arts indicate that the painting was done in 1843.

Artist

HBC does not know who the artist was.

Location

The background is so non-descript that it is not possible to tell where the children are from. The deciduous follage and the location in a Boston museum suggest that the children were probably from the northeastern United States. The fact that there were many more artists in the north than South is another factor.

Identity

We do not know who the children were. The girl looks to be about 11 or 12 years ols and her little brother about 5 or 6 years old. The fact that they a portrait was dome of them suggests that they came from an affluent family. The fact that it is a naive portrait in the 1840s suggest, however, that they were not wealthy. The fact that the girl has ringlets and the boy is not yet breached at 5 or 6 years is another sign of affluence as are the nice clothes that they are wearing.

Props

The girl has a boquet of roses while the boy hold the family pet--a cat.

Hair Styles

The girl wears immacualtely done ringlet curls. Her little brother has a short hair cut that would not be out of place today. Younger boys commonly wore dresses in the 1840s. Short haircuts, even for young boys, however, were common--even for boys still in dresses. We have noted boys with longb hair in the 1840s, but short cuts were more common in America.

Clothes

The children were dressed similarly. We do not know if the mother made a concicous effort to do this, but the similarities seem to pronounced to have been meerly accidental. Even so there are some major and more subtle differences in their outfits. Some of the differences were conventions of the 1840s while others were simply the preferences of their mother.

Figure 2.--This detail shows the ruffled trim on the boy's neckline while the girl has lace trim.

Dresses

Both children wear dark dresses, perhaps velvet dresses. The girl's dress is burgandy, the boys dress is forrest green. One wonders if his dress was worn by his sister when she was younger. The dark color of the dresses make it impossible to note detailing--although some white work can be seen on the boy's dress. The two dresses have very similar necklinesm showing the neck and a little of the shoulder. The neck trim on the boys dress is white ruffles. The neck trim of the girls's dress is lace which is repaeted at the sleeve. The basic difference of the two dresses is that the girl's dress has shoer sleeves and the boys's dress has long sleeves. the length is similar.

Pantalettes

Both children wear pantalettes of similar length. The girl's pantalettes are very fancy with extra lace trim added at the hen--not very practical for outdoors. The boy's pantalettes are very plain.

Shoes

While the two children wear very similar clothing, their shoes are quite different. The girl appears to be wearing black open slippers showing her white stockings. Her brother appears to be wearing brown and black lace up shoes.

Created: November 27, 2001
Last updated: November 27, 2001