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Notes
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The child in this portrait wears a green velvet doublet and skirt over a hooped frame. This was the fashion for boys until they were ‘breeched’ (dressed in breeches or trousers) at the age of six or seven. The front-fastening doublet he is wearing and his short hair style together with the handel of a little dagger just visible at his waist all tell us that he is a boy. An inscription in the corner of the painting gives his age as two years but his identity is unknown. He holds a bunch of pansies, a symbol of thought (and in particular of lost loved ones). He has a robin tied to a string, perhaps suggesting his innocence and fragility. Although he has coral bracelets at his wrists, worn by children to protect them from misfortune, the symbols may be telling us that this little boy had died.
Title
A Boy Aged Two
Date
1608
Medium
oil on panel
Measurements
H 114.3 x W 85.7 cm
Accession number
CVCSC : 0251.B
Acquisition method
purchased, 1998
Work type
Painting
Inscription description
painted: age of girl and year in Latin: Aetatis suae 2 / Ano 1608
Compton Verney
Compton Verney, Warwickshire CV35 9HZ England
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