IN BLACK Portrait of an Upholster, Franciscus Cuypers. Boston, 1852, oil on canvas, 46 x 41½ inches. Museum purchase.
F
ashion history tends to favor one end of the gender spectrum. Masculine clothing has traditionally received little attention from scholars, perhaps because so many men appear in variations on the same theme: a dark three-
piece suit. It’s hard to get excited about a wool two-button coat when scholars can tackle divisive subjects such as high heels and corsets. Gender is performative. Clothing plays a key role in staging that action, but offers far more than a social mask to those who
by LAURA E. JOHNSON Curator
engage it. Rather than considering the four portraits discussed here as standard depictions of power and authority—the stereotypical man in a black suit—they can give the viewer interesting details about social constructions of identity. Depicted nailing an elaborate covering on a carved chair, the unknown upholsterer painted by Dutch-born artist Franciscus Cuypers (1820–1866) meets the viewer’s gaze casually and comfortably. He is posed informally, cradling the chair in his knees with hammer in hand, wearing a spotless white shirt and a swath of apron around his waist. His shirt is typical of the early 1850s, with a hidden button placket down the center front flanked by pleats. His pants are good black wool, draped at the knees from wear but not threadbare or patched. His black, asymmetrically knotted necktie is fastened in the latest fashion. A black necktie was a somber choice in the early 1850s, when men often mixed plaids, stripes, and dots in eye-searing combinations; he most likely purchased his clothing ready-made from one of the many warehouses in Boston. Ready-made clothing, available to some as early as the eighteenth century, was one of the fastest-growing businesses in HistoricNewEngland.org
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