Three small boys in sailor suits - paintings by Louis-Maurice Boutet de Monvel

Portrait of a Young Boy Wearing a Sailor Suit, 1884.

Louis-Maurice Boutet de Monvel (18 October 1850, Orléans – 16 March 1913, Paris), French painter and illustrator, best known for his watercolors for children's books, and the father of the painter Bernard Boutet de Monvel. Wikipedia has a rather exhaustive/exhausting entry on the artist, so I'll think I'll pass the biographical work off to them.

Bernard and Roger, at the château de Vineuil at Bourré, 1883.

This odd and charming double portrait shows the artist's two sons, two-year-old Bernard - later a famous artist in his own right - and Roger, aged four. It was painted while the family was vacationing at the château de Vineuil - at Bourré in the Loir-et-Cher département of central France - which belonged to madame Boutet de Monvel's cousin, the photographer Louis Rousselet.The two boys look to be posing under great duress, just waiting - stiffly, impatiently; the younger one decidely pouting - until given the all-clear to run off and play.