Artists Illustrating Boys' Fashions: Conrad Hitz (Switzerland, 1798-1866)



Figure 1.-- Hitz's portrait here is of the Paul Kessler-Trümpi family. They would have been a German-speaking Swiss family. The portrait was painted in 1840. This was at a time that we begin to see Daguerreotype portraits of individuals, but rarely family groups. Thus portraits like this are very useful. The family was clearly a prosperous middle-class family.

Conrad Hitz lived in both Germany and Switzerland. At this time we do not yet know much about him or his work. He was born in Langnau am Albis in 1798. He painted portraits, including minatures. He also did genre work. He died in Munich during 1866. His paintings provide us interesting insights on the mid-19th century, much it during a period in which photography was just beginning to develop. Thus his portraits shows us how inviduals dressed and his genre work provides insights into 19th century families. Hitz's portrait here is of the Paul Kessler-Trümpi family. We do not yet know much about the family. The name suggests that they were a German-Swiss family. (It is a typical German-Swiss name. French names have no umlauts.) Hitz painted the portrait in 1840. This was at a time that we begin to see Daguerreotype portraits of individuals, but rarely family groups. Thus portraits like this are very useful. The family was clearly a prosperous middle-class (bourguoise family). The portrait provides a lot of information about period families. First of all the size of families. Here we have five children close in age. This suggests there were more children to come. The way the family is posed shows how the concept of family changed during the 19th century. Notice how the individuals are touching and holding each other. It is clearly a connected family unit. (It is quite common for families in the 18th century to be painted as individuals.) This image painted at the very onset of the Victorian era was to become the Victorian idea, There are five children, but we do not know the names of the children. They look to be three boys and and two girls Given the age of the younger children wearing dresses, however, we are not positive that they are girls. The boys all have short, but not cropped hair. The youngest child wears a redish-brown tunic with different colored long pants. All the boys wear the same large, opent pointed collar. I think the Germans would call these Schiller collars, but I'm not sure the term as in use yet. The open collars are interesting. Most of the Daguerreotype portrais from the 1840s and 50s that we have found show closed collars, often with neckwear. But the Dags we have found are mostly American. The older boys wear black jackets which look rather like Eton jackets, One of the older boys wears light-brown long pants, presumably the boy in the back does also. (The same pants the younger boy wears.)









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Created: 10:00 PM 11/21/2007
Last updated: 4:27 PM 11/22/2007