Figure 1.--This unidentified American primitive shows the pantalettes worn by young children with tunics and dresses. Some like these were plain, others were much more fancy.
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Figure 1.--This unidentified American primitive shows the pantalettes worn by young children with tunics and dresses. Some like these were plain, others were much more fancy. |
Many fascinating American primitives exist providing a wealth of information about children's fashions. While the artist is not known, in some cases the children depicted and the approximate date of the paintings are known. These portraits are some of the few sources of information as to what American boys were actually wearing in the early 19th century before the advent of photography. Thes artists are particularly important as unlike the work of the more accomplished artists, these primative/naive artists painted the children of more ordinary less wealthy families--giving a helpful glimse of popular fashion.
Many of the unknown painters were intenerate artists, traveling the back roads of America, in some cases doing portraits for room and board or supplies. They for the most part had no academic training for their profession.
The portraits painted by primative or naive artists in the early 19th century or some of the few depictions available of boys clothing in America. American primitives focused on portraits because that was the principal outlet for their skills. Americans wanted portraits of themselves and their families in the days before photography. Particularly important is that while the perspective looks primitive as is the handling of light and shadow, the depictions of the clothing are very detailed an accurate. They even offer an advantage over the photography that appeared in the 1840s in that color is depicted and the materials more apparent, especially in the still primitive photographs of the 1840s and 50s.
These naive portraits provide a lpt of information about children and their lifestyles in the years before photography. Unlike photographs, painted portraits in general probably came from a generally more affluent element of society. The higher the quality of the portrait, probably the more affluent the family. This is important in assessing who was wearing what. Also the children were often painted with prosed possessions or pertinent backgrounds.
Figure 2.--The Cogdon brothers were painted by an anonymous American primitive artist about 1830. The painting shows that the skeleton suit and large ruffled collars were still being worn in the early 1830s. The style, however, went out of fashion in the 1830s. |
Two of the most important outfits of the early 19th century appear regularly in the work of the American primatives. After breeching, boys would be likely to wear these garments. Often the boys and girls are show wearing pantalettes.
Often details on the subjects are lacking, often making it difficult to identify the younger subjects wearing dresses in primitive portraits. In many cases the subjects are boys, but it is often difficult to tell.
The tunic was an important garment for European boys in the early 19th century. HBC has relatively few images showing boys in tunics. I believe that the tunic was also widely worn in America. Some available primitive portraits do indeed show American boys wore tunics, but I am not yet sure how widely worn they were.
American primitives confirm that the skeleton suit was the principal dressup garment worn by American boys after breeching. The collars could be quite large. This style persisted into the 1830s. The boys here wear open collars.
Many anonymous portraits ober time provide a fascinating record of developing styles in boys suits as the style began to decline in the 1830s to the appearance of many mpdern styles at the end of the 19th century. Unfortunately many of these portraits are undated, but many are whicj help to date the process. They provide glimses of suits wghen photography was stll developing as well as valuable color information.
Many boys in the early 19th century wore open collar styles without neckwear. As the decade progressed various types of neckwear appeared. Boys tende to wear raelative small ties and bows, the large bows are a late 19th century style not seen in the first half of the century.
Pantalettes were widely worn by girls and younger boys in the darly 19th century. American primitive portraits show them worn with dresses, tunics, and even skeleton suits. The pantalettes worn by younger boys and girls might be identical, but older boys would generally wear plainer ones.
Figure 3.--This American boy may have been painted in the Ohio Valley. He is holding a flute, suggesting it was important to either him or his mother. Note the collar and hair style. |
The boys painted in these naive portraits wore a wide variety of collars. Some were plain small collars and other boys might gave large ruffled collars. There were both open and closed-neck collars. On some cose up portraits, the collar is often the only clearly drawn clothing element.
Naive portraits provide a great deal of valuable information on hair styles. While early 19th clothing is often described in detail in a variety of publication and letters, there is much less information about hair styles. Short hair seems the dominant style, sometimes shorter than a boy's father. There are, however, some examples of boys with longer hair. We see few portraits of boys with ringlets, perhaps because by tghe time that ringlets had become fashionable for boys photograph had supplanted the once florishing trade of unschooled primitive/naive artists.
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