Figure 1.--This 1897 portrait shows the boys at a small rural primary school. Notice that smocks are worn by mostly the younger boys. Many boys have sjaved heads. A few boys wear bows. We see only one older boy in the back row wearing a smock. None of the smocks appear to be belted. Click on the image to see the rest of the class. |
The Government of the Third Republic in the 1870s required elemetary school children, boys and girls, to wear smocks. Unfortunately we have few details on this. The primary reason was to reduce differences between afluent children and those from more modest families. The earliest smocks for boys were black, but we notice some light-colored smocks and patterns as well. HBC knows less about what a French boy would do after school. Would he take his school smock off? Change into another smock for play or go without a smock after school? While smocks were commonly worn by Frebch schoolboys in the late 19th Century, but not by all schoolboys. We note some photographs of French schools where mostly the younger boys wear smocks. We are not yet sure just what the regulations were and how they varied over time. While most of the boys' smocks were dark, we notice some of the yiounger boys in the 1890s wearing brightly patterened smocks.
The Government of the Third Republic in the 1870s required elemetary school children, boys and girls, to wear smocks. Unfortunately we have few details on this. The primary reason was to reduce differences between afluent children and those from more modest families. Most of these erarly smocks appear to have been black, but we have very little information.
A least some boys wore lihjt-colored, front buttoining smocks. A amateur water colorist left an album of paintings dated 1885. He is not the most capable artist we have seen, but he has left a very detailed of a boy in a military-styled cp and lihjt-colored smock. The child almost surely is a school boy. We do not know how representative this smile was. The portrait is watercolor and pencil on psper. The artist was Matthew S. Jarvis (active 1879-1887).
We believe that kmost boys still wore dark smocks, but we notice some light-colored smocks and patterns as well. Notice the 1897 photograph here (figure 1).
HBC knows less about what a French boy would do after school. Would he take his school smock off? Change into another smock for play or go without a smock after school? While smocks were commonly worn by Frebch schoolboys in the late 19th Century, but not by all schoolboys. We note some photographs of French schools where mostly the younger boys wear smocks.
We are not yet sure just what the regulations were and how they varied over time. While most of the boys' smocks were dark, we notice some of the yiounger boys in the 1890s wearing brightly patterened smocks.
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