We all know The Blue Boy (c. 1770) by Thomas Gainsborough, and for some of us there is a special attachment, while others only know it because it is famous. What most people don’t know is who the blue boy in the painting is, and that’s because it isn’t important.
Gainsborough painted The Blue Boy as a statement, hoping to prove that his rival artist, Sir Joshua Reynolds, was completely out of his mind when he declared that cool colors such as blue and green should only exist at the edge of a painting and that the center should always be dominated by warm colors such as reds and yellows. Of course I could care less, but I do care about the boy in the painting whose life only matters now to prove a point about a color scheme. Is this why his shoes look so absurd: because they are not his, and he is having trouble standing in them? His posture is also odd, because he is just a kid in a costume, unaccustomed to the royal way in which he is dressed. He sticks his chest out until he nearly falls backwards, and his expression is deeply devoid of the self-centered snobbishness that is beaten into fledgling aristocrats even at the age of four. This kid is honestly happy, which is why we love him, even though his pose is ridiculously artificial.
Maybe the boy is in on the joke. Maybe he is the cobbler’s son and he is just helping out. Little does he know that for the rest of time he will be recognized as a child of wealth and breeding. Even more impossibly he will cheat death and live happily forever, grinning over his little secret. Maybe that’s why we love him so: He is a dream come true. Then again, maybe all he needs is a good beating.
Thomas Gainsborough’s The Blue Boy, is part of the permanent collection at The Huntington Library in San Marino, CA.
“We all know The Blue Boy (c. 1770) by Thomas Gainsborough, and for some of us there is a special attachment, while others only know it because it is famous.”
And then there’s the rest of us ignoramuses, such as myself, whose first exposure to The Blue Boy is this Retrospect column.
My instantaneous, first reaction upon seeing it: “Tim Curry as a boy!”
(Go ahead and check it out for yourself. Google “Tim Curry” for images and look at the pics of him when he was younger. The Blue Boy is a dead giveaway as an ancestral relative of his, some cousin or such.)
As for the painting, well, yeah, sure, I love it. I mean, who doesn’t like Curry?
And about the color scheme: I think there was a hidden reason for all that blue, besides just dissing Reynolds. I happen to know (having two sons myself), and Gainsborough also apparently knew, that boys are just plain cool, and boyhood is the coolest time of life for men. Hence the use of the cool color of blue. The Blue Boy, then, is a celebration of boys and boyhood.
Building on my Blue Boy color scheme “cool” theory, here is one person’s research into the use of “cool” as slang:
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The Oxford English Dictionary writes:
“Originally in African-American usage: (as a general term of approval) admirable, excellent. Cf. hot adj. 12c. Popularized among jazz musicians and enthusiasts in the late 1940s”
The first example they give is from the 1930s:
1933 Z. N. Hurston in Story Aug. 63 And whut make it so cool, he got money ‘cumulated. And womens give it all to ‘im.
The entry refers to “hot” as a comparison–the main entry is “Characterized by intensity or energy, in a positive or neutral sense (cf. sense A. 9); exciting, fast, successful, etc.” and the related sense is:
“colloq. (orig. U.S.). Extremely good, splendid; very skilled, knowledgeable, or successful. Also with on and a specified subject or activity.”
This is first noted from the 1800s:
“1845 in G. W. Harris High Times & Hard Times (1967) 52, I am a hot hand at the location of capital letters and punctuation.”
So, it looks like “cool” developed to mean the same thing as the earlier slang “hot” in African American English. There is no explanation of why this occurred.
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Ah, but now we know (per my Blue Boy theory) how and why all of this occurred! Reynolds insisted that “warm” colors be the focus, while “cool” colors be at the edges. This was the “hot” way of doing things, meaning extremely good, splendid way of doing things. Gainsborough thought Reynolds was retarded, and so he reversed the order, putting a “cool” color as the focus, and called his painting The Blue Boy just to piss Reynolds off, trying to pass “cool” off as “hot”. (Gainsborough was a bit of an anarchist, like myself, I guess.)
Reynolds snickered at this, and in private, he and his friends mockingly referred to the painting as The Cool Boy, saying, “He thinks The Cool Boy is The Hot Boy!” And all his friends joined in the chant, “The Cool Boy is The Hot Boy! Cool is Hot!”
Some African slave waiters overheard this conversation, and started to tell other African slaves that “Cool is now hot!” But the slaves kept this to themselves, until 1933, when a Jazz musician was the first to reveal to the world what many in the African American community had known for more than a century.
So, The Blue Boy is the ACTUAL source of the slang use of cool! How cool is that?
I’m beginning to think I’m the only one who reads this blog… Lol.
And I’m amazed that Mary hasn’t closed the replies, yet. They are usually closed long before now. Perhaps she’s had too much turkey dinner and is still on her couch trying to sleep it off. So, given that the comments are still open, I’ll leave a final thought.
I figured that someone would call me out on the above theory I proposed, and point out the glaring flaw to it, namely that “hot” wasn’t used as its slang meaning until 1845, and yet The Blue Boy was painted in 1770. So I will explain the mystery away:
Historically, the aristocracy have always been the first to have everything, including the first to make new uses of words. But they often keep these new uses to themselves, using them only in the company of other aristocracy. And then, when they are good and ready, they release them to the masses. This gives them a sense of control over the masses. (They like to feel empowered and in control of us sheep.) The 1845 citation of “hot” was when the aristocracy leaked out the slang use of the word to the masses. And that wraps up the story behind the painting.
So, in keeping with this story, the title of the painting should be: “Young Lord Curry of Powder in Cool Attire.”
One last thing: every picture ought to inspire the imagination, and if DOES inspire the imagination, but its backstory is boring and bland, or its title is boring and bland, it is the right and duty of every creative individual to imagine a better backstory and title and to promote them as the absolute truth. Long live the immortal, eternally young and stylish Lord Curry of Powder!