Figure 1.-- This is another Austrian boy dressed up in Alpine folk costume. The unidentified boy seems to be about 5 years old. The portrait is undated. We are not sure about the date, perhaps the early-1950s. This is a younger boy whose mother did him up in Tracht for a portrait. He looks to be quite proud of his national dress or perhaps he is taken with the great toy horse. This portrait is rather curious. While it looks like a standard portrait, look at the bottom. The curtain does not meet the floor and there is a huge mess on the floor. There is a grille like structure running along the skirting board. It looks like it is part of a central heating system, with perforations to allow hot air to circulate. Where the curtains meet radiator grille the wall is boarded, not plaster. It seems rather a jerry-rigged stdio.

This is another Austrian boy dressed up in Alpine folk costume. The unidentified boy seems to be about 5 years old. The portrait is undated. We are not sure about the date, perhaps the early-1950s. This is a younger boy whose mother did him up in Tracht for a portrait. He looks to be quite proud of his national dress or perhaps he is taken with the great toy horse, almost certainly a studio prop. There are a couple of anomalies from what we often see. His felt Alpine hat is a little oddly shaped. Rather than a jacket, he wears what looks like a hand-knitted cardigan sweater with accented breast pockets and matching collar, lapels, and cuffs. It may have been knitted by mother or grandmother. The short pants are made to look like Lederhosen, but look like they are cloth rather than leather. The sewn on patches are made to simukate Lederhosen, but may have been used for button to attach suspenders. We can not see this because of the cardigan. They have a traditional Austrian bone button for ornament at the sides. We are not entirely sure why parents would buy Ersatz Lederhosen, but real leather Lederhosen would have been more exoensuive. He also wears heavily ribbed gray woolen long stockings instead of the more common knee socks or Loferl for this sort of Alpine dress. This probably means the portrait was taken during the winter. The rubber boots (called Wellingtons in England) we don't understand--perhaps it was raining the day the portrait was taken. The vintage toy horse on wheels looks like a bit of an antique for the 1950s--perhaps a family object passed down to the boy, although it looks fairly new and may be a recreation of an older-style toy. The furniture (a rather formal chair with upholstered back and seat) looks as though it belongs in a fashionable, affluent family.

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Created: 11:54 PM 9/28/2010
Last updated: 3:20 AM 9/29/2010