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Beechey about 1792 painted Sir Francis Ford's children giving a coin to a beggar. (It was exhibited in 1793.) One wonders of the choice of the subject. Some wealthy families would not have wanted their children pictured with a ragged beggar boy. Why were the Ford's so different? Perhaps it was because much of the family's wealth came from a slave sugar plantation on Barbados, one of the British Caribbean sugar plantations. This in fact was true for very many wealthy British families. The Ford children are a boy and girl. The contrast between the children is startling in fact the children themselves seem rather taken back by the condittion of the beggar boy. Note how the children's dog is shown well gromed and cared for, much better than the poor abandoned boy. The children look to be about 8 years old. The boy wears a very large black hat topped with a large plume. He wears long, but uncurrled hair. This is not necesarily a childlish hair style as many men in the 1790s were stll wearing their hair long. He had a bright red skeleton suit with matching pants and long pants. The sleleton suit has a large lace collar, but worn comfortably open. This is another example of the brigtht colors of boys' skeleton suits. This shows how long pants had begun to replace knee breeches by the early 1790s. The pants are worn characteristically above the ankles showing his white socks.
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