'By the latter part of the 19th Century,' she explained, 'the magazines are just filled with pictures of girls dressed as Blue Boy.'
This, for Hedquist, was the start of the 'feminisation' of Blue Boy. And these actors would frequently be girls. This began on stage in the 19th Century, where actors playing 'Little Boy Blue' in pantomimes were frequently dressed up in the silks, breeches and lace collar of Gainsborough's Blue Boy. But for Hedquist, the idea that the boy in the painting is dressing up in costume and acting is critical to his later reappraisals: 'the Blue Boy invites performance,' she says.
