Figure 1.--We see quite a few boys wearing bright red skeketin suits. It was the one bright color. Rgere is no definitive attribution of this portrait. Some believe that it was the work of Gilbert Suart [American], We also see it attributed to Martin Arthur Spee Irish/English]. That would mean it is unclear if the boys is American or British. While undated, we suspect it was painted in the 1800s decade.

We have coniderable infomation about the color of skeleton suits. This is because skeleton suits were worn befre the appearance of photograohy which mean mostly black and white images. There were lrge number of full color imagery as a result of painted portraits, in some cases by the greats of portaiture including English portraiture. The problem we have is that many of the portraits are not defintively atributed and dated. Thus we know what colors skeleton suits came, but we are not eniely sure how the colors changed over time. We see both vibrant colors and rather muted colors. Some paintings show that bright colors were also used in boys' skeleton suits, specially red. These seem to be for aristocratic boys, nu we are no sue if commoners were so conspicuously outfitted. Our initial assessment is that the earlier skeketon suits were brightly colored, often bright red. For some reason we do not see other bright colors. The later later suits were muted colors, in some cases black or partially black. This was especially the case as we begin to approch the Victorian era. We can not be more defintive because so many of the availavle paintingss are not definatively attributed and dated. One help in dating here is that early skeleton suits were done with knee breeches. We beleve that by the turn-of-the 19th century, skeleton suits were mostly done wih long pants. And some of the bright colored suits were dome with long pants which means into the very early-19th century.

Created: 2:31 AM 11/27/2025
Last updated: 2:31 AM 11/27/2025