Boy in a red waistcoat

Albert Anker's 'Boy in a Red Waistcoat' (1885) is a costume portrait subject — the specific article of clothing (the red waistcoat) providing both a compositional anchor (the intense color against the figure's other elements) and a documentation of the traditional Swiss village dress that Anker consistently recorded in his figure subjects. The boy in traditional costume was a subject that combined the genre interest of the child subject with the documentary value of recording the specific material culture of the Swiss village world that was gradually disappearing under the pressure of modernization.

Anker renders the boy with his characteristic warm naturalism — the red waistcoat as the composition's chromatic focus, the intense color of the traditional garment creating a strong visual anchor within the portrait. His handling of the boy's face and the specific quality of the child's individual character reflects his sustained intimate knowledge of the children of Ins. The red of the waistcoat is rendered with the accuracy of close observation — its specific hue, the variations of the dyed wool, and its relationship to the other costume elements.