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A Boy Aged Two

Image credit: Compton Verney

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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.

Compton Verney

Compton Verney

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

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Normally on display at

Compton Verney

Compton Verney, Warwickshire CV35 9HZ England

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