Figure 1.--We have little information about American artist George Baker Jr., other than his life span. Which is trange because he is a rare American artist at the time that was making high quality portraits. We do note a beautiful portrait done of four American children done in 1853. We do not yet know who the childrn are. The children look go be three boys, playing with their younger sibling. We are not positive about the younger child wearing a white dress. At that age it could be a boy or girl, but is probably a girl. If you look closely there seems to be a center hair part. The boys outfits showcase the types of suits American boys were wearing in the 1850s.

We have little information about American artist George Baker Jr., other than his life span. We do note a beautiful portrait done of four American children (1853). The quality of his work mkes him among the top tier of American artists at the time. We do not yet know who the childrn are. The children look to be four boys, but we are not positive about the younger child wearing a white dress. Notice the two different suit types and the half sleeve and blouse style.

Artist

We have little information about American artist George Baker Jr., other than his life span. This is strange given his high quality work making him one of the top American rtidts of the day. Considerable informnation is avaialable for the other leading American rtists. As far as we know, he did not have academic training, but learned from his father who was slso an artist.

Portrait

We do note a beautiful portrait done of four American children done in 1853. We do not yet know who the childrn are. The children look go be four boys, but we are not positive about the younger child wearing a white dress.

Blowing Bubles

The boys here are enjoying theselves blowing bumbles. We are not sure when children began doing this. We have noted other 19th century paintings. Bubble blowing is dpicted in one of the most well known painting, Millais "Bubbles" painting. We also note an Allingham painting. It continues being a popular activity for childrn.

Ages

The children look to be about 3-12 years old giving us a good age range for hoe boyswere dressed in the 1850s.

Clothing

The portrait offers a good example of age graded clothing, a common convention in the 19th century, both in America and Europe. There are four children, but three different outfits. The two middle boys are dressed similarly, but are not twins. Notice the half sleeve and blouse style.

Older boy

The oldest boy wears a black jacket and matching long pants. His jacket does not have lapels and buttons at the collar. Notice the brass buttons. He wears a small white collar and blue bow without tails. Note the black color. At the time, black frock coats had become standard wear for men. Thus as boys got older they were more likely to be dressed in black, although the jacket is not an adult cut. The jacket is a military style, similar to U.S. Army stles. The Army uniforms were black. We see a lot of these jackets in the photographic record, but of course the color is not captured in the balacka nd white photography of the day. We had thought that blue was standard.

Middle boys

As best we can tell, the middle boys are dressed alike, only with different color jackets. They are the standard jackets of the day for younger children. They connect near the collar and then are cut away. Notice the short jacket sleeves and the ballon blouse sleeves. This style was also worn by girls. This wasa common style in the 1950s, but had disappeared by the 1860s. We also notice boys in tunics at the same time with similar sleeves, both in America, Belgium, and France. The boys have small white collars whih look to be part of the louse and not detachd. Both boys even have identical bows with tails. Although we can not tell for sure, both boys probbly wear long pants. Knee pants had begun to appear fr very young boys in Europe by the 1850s but long pants were still much more common, even for younger children.

Youngest child

The youngest child wears a white dress that has a matching white waist ribbon with pantalettes, white stockings, and black strap shes. Note the pink ribbons at the shoulders. A common fashion for centuries was to decorate children's dresses with shoulder ribbons. We are not sure at this time if these were symbolic of leading strings. We thought they might be, but some HBC readers disagree. At that age, tThe child could be eityher a boy or girl. We believe that this child is probably a girl, although there is not way to be sure. The child looks rather boyish to us and the short hair suggests a boy, although here may be a center part which would suggest a girl. The pink ribbons are not useful as a gender indicator as the modern pink/blue gender conventions had not yet developed.

Hair Styles

All of the children have similar short hair cuts. The youngest child looks o have a pooly deined cebter part, but it is difficult to tell for sure. Parents at the time varied in how they handled breeching and hair cutting. Some parents cut a boy's curls before brreching him which may have been the case here.

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Created: August 1, 2003
Last updated: 6:59 AM 1/7/2026