Figure 1.--Here we see a CDV portrait of the three children of an unidentified Brussels family. The portrait is undated, but looks like the 1860s. The children look to be all boys, including the younger child still wearing a dress. They look go be about 2-7 years old. Notice that the boys are wearing knicker suits. We see some knicker suits in America during the 1860s, but American boys rearely wre knicers in the 19th century. Straight-leg knee pants were much more common. Click n the image to see the parents. The studio was Ghémar Frères with appoitment to the King of Bruxelles

Belgium is one of the newer contries in Europe. Belgium was created (1830), following the Belgian Revolution, the secession of the southern Netherlands from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and the establishment of a constsitutiional Belgian monarchy, chosing a German prince. From the beginning, there were close ties with the British monarchy. (Britain also had a Germanic monarchy.) Of course the people existed before they became Belgian. Flandres was an important part of Belgium. As a result of its creation, Belgian fashion was strongly influenced by both the Dutch, English, and French. Belgium was created at about the same time thqt photography was invented in France (1839). Theoretically we would have family images from the earliest stage of Belgium as a nation. Unfortunately, for some reason, our 19th century Belgian photographic archive is extremely limited. We do not yet have examples of early formats, only with the CDV do we have a few examples beginning with the 1860s.

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Created: 4:26 AM 3/15/2025
Last updated: 4:27 AM 3/15/2025