Portrait of a cross-dressing man, ambrotype
ANONYMOUS
n.p. . [c1850s].
Description:
Ambrotype, gilt oval mount in a leather covered wooden case. 54x41mm, ambrotype in the mount. Frame, 74x62mm. In very good condition. An early photograph of a seated man wearing a long haired wig, a frilly bonnet, a flouncy striped scarf, and a black shawl. A very long watch chain runs from the collar of the shawl to his waist. Images of men dressed as women are recorded and collected but they tend to be later than this which has been dated to the 1850s on account of its size, the leather casing and the clothes.
That men enjoy (and enjoyed) dressing up in women's clothes is not news. What is interesting about Victorian cross dressing, of which this is an excellent early(ish) example, is that its transgressions are so much more marked given that male clothing was increasingly sober and constrictive. Gone were the colours of the Regency, the powdered wigs of the Georgians and the lacy ruffs of the seventeenth century. Men had to be men and so when they weren't, it seemed all the more surprising and unsettling. Cross dressing was not illegal but those who did it were occasionally prosecuted for encouraging licentious behaviour. Although it is hard to imagine this chap with his baggy eyes and long, saturnine face encouraging anyone to do anything very naughty.
Description:
Ambrotype, gilt oval mount in a leather covered wooden case. 54x41mm, ambrotype in the mount. Frame, 74x62mm. In very good condition. An early photograph of a seated man wearing a long haired wig, a frilly bonnet, a flouncy striped scarf, and a black shawl. A very long watch chain runs from the collar of the shawl to his waist. Images of men dressed as women are recorded and collected but they tend to be later than this which has been dated to the 1850s on account of its size, the leather casing and the clothes.
That men enjoy (and enjoyed) dressing up in women's clothes is not news. What is interesting about Victorian cross dressing, of which this is an excellent early(ish) example, is that its transgressions are so much more marked given that male clothing was increasingly sober and constrictive. Gone were the colours of the Regency, the powdered wigs of the Georgians and the lacy ruffs of the seventeenth century. Men had to be men and so when they weren't, it seemed all the more surprising and unsettling. Cross dressing was not illegal but those who did it were occasionally prosecuted for encouraging licentious behaviour. Although it is hard to imagine this chap with his baggy eyes and long, saturnine face encouraging anyone to do anything very naughty.