Silhouettes
Silhouettes are charming and evocative portraits cut out of paper that
became popular in the mid-eighteenth century in Europe. The French
finance
minister, Etienne de Silhouette, either was the first to practice
this
craft or the practice was named after him for his parsimonious
policies.
In any event, generally the profile of the sitter is cut out of
white
paper and mounted on glossy black paper or black fabric. These
portraits
became very popular in the early nineteenth century in the United
States
and remain so today.
The Society's collection includes a group of framed silhouettes
dating
from the first part of the nineteenth century. Several of the
framed silhouettes
in the collection were created at Charles Willson Peale's Museum
in Philadelphia.
There is also a collection in the portrait collection of unframed
items.
There are four made by William King that accompany a printed
advertisement
for this practitioner who worked in Boston early in the nineteenth
century.
One of these is tentatively identified as Phillis Wheatley, the
celebrated
African-American poet. In 1916, Mrs. Frederick McClure presented
AAS eighty-nine
silhouettes cut by her grandfather, William Chamberlain
(1790-1860) of
Loudon, New Hampshire. He cut these during a two-year's tour
through New
England in the 1820s. Also present is a group of three silhouettes
cut
by J. Locke of three members of the Stark Family of Manchester,
N.H.
Silhouettes remained popular throughout the nineteenth
century. Francis
Endicott, a publisher of lithographs in New York, issued the Album
of
Shadow Portraits in 1871. This portfolio included instructions for
cutting
silhouettes and supply of paper to do so.
- Georgia B. Barnhill, Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Graphic Arts
Sources:
Maurice Richards, Encyclopedia of Ephemera (New
York: Routledge,
2000) 298-299.
Raymond Lister, Silhouettes (London: Pitman, 1955).
Vincent DiCicco, "Silhouette Portraiture in
America," Folk
Art (Fall, 2001).
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Silhouette tentatively identified as a depiction of Phillis Wheatley
(1753-1784)
* Unframed Silhouette
Collection
Inventory
* Framed Silhouette
Collection
Inventory
For current information on the cataloging status of this and
other AAS collections, choose "Collection Access" below.
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