French Family with a Swan – 1846

Against a distant pink sky a mother and her two children stand near a pond full of lily pads. The youngest child offers a treat to a white swan. The mother wears a green and white vertically-striped dress with a three tiered skirt. Each tier is edged in fringe. The sleeves are narrow and gathered into narrow white cuffs. Over her dress she wears a white sheer lace mantelet. She carries a white handkerchief and a purple parasol, also trimmed with fringe and angled against the sun.

Her straw bonnet trimmed and tied with black netting and pink ribbon, though she wears the ribbons loose. Her youngest child, probably a boy “not yet breeched,” wears a tan short dress over pink and white striped stockings. The dress buttons down the front and is trimmed with lavish braiding down the front and around the hem, and also on the sleeves. Around the stiff white pleated collar is a red and white striped tie. The bands of trim are elaborately woven in overlapping zigzags. The child wears flat black shoes with straps, and a straw hat trimmed with a white ribbon.

In the child’s right hand is a jump rope. The older brother stands behind, resting his hand on his brother’s shoulder. He wears full pleated white trousers, and a red and white striped waistcoat. His white shirt is visible only at the high pleated collar and white ruffled cuffs. His hip length jacket is navy blue, trimmed with wide bands of blue braiding at the center front. The coat is fastened at the front, but left open from just above the waist.

He wears flat black shoes and a straw colored kepi hat trimmed with braiding and a long tassel. The family stands at the edge of a pond with waterlilies, cattails, and cyclamen around them.

Credit: The Claremont Colleges