Figure 1.-- This Joseph Goodhue Chandler portrait shows an unidentified boy wearing a white dress with with pantaloons/pantalettes and holding a grey cat. The portrait is undated, but we would guess was painted in the 1840s. The dress does not have a collar and is done with a moderately low neckline. Earlier in the century, dresses for children were basically scaled down versions of the dresses mother wore. By the 40s, dresses for children were considerably shortened from earlier in the century, much shorter than the styles worn for adult women.

This Joseph Goodhue Chandler portrait shows an unidentified boy wearing a white dress with with pantaloons/pantalettes and holding a grey cat. The portrait is undated, but we would guess was painted in the 1840s. The dress does not have a collar and is done with a moderately low neckline and ruffled half sleeves. Earlier in the century, dresses for children were basically scaled down versions of the dresses mother wore. By the 40s, dresses for children were considerably shortened from earlier in the century, much shorter than the styles worn for adult women. But commonly with these shorter dresses, the children's legs were covered for modesty reasons. Notice how the pantalettes are coordinated with the dress. Thus we still do not know much about period hosiery. Notice even the ankles are covered. We have no idea about the boy's age. Naive artists are very good at clothing details, but do not capture ages very well. We suspect the boy was about 4 years old, but that is only a guess, the age could be anything from about 3-5 years old. We are not sure about 6-year olds, but think that was much less likely.

Created: 1:47 PM 1/7/2023
Last updated: 1:48 PM 1/7/2023