A Short History of Silhouettes
Oct 12th, 2013 by Artsy
A Short History of Silhouettes by Katherine Courtney
A silhouette is a picture of an object or person showing the outline only, filled with solid shadow or to appear in profile. Its name is derived from “Etienne de Silhouette,” a notorious French controller general of finance who lived from 1709 to 1767. He would amuse himself by freehand cutting shadow portraits out of black paper. There are several types of silhouettes but the most common were cut from black paper or hollow cut with scissors.
Lady Diana Cooper, with her son John, cut from paper, London 1935
cut by Baroness Eveline von Maydell, then a well-known profilist in the US
Silhouette drawing can be traced back as far as the stone age where many can be found on the walls of caves. The Greeks, Mesopotamian’s and Etruscans used them also.
European silhouette artists in the seventeenth century would cast the shadow of their subject upon a wall by back lighting them with a candle and then paint their likeness. In the eighteenth century silhouettes became very common as paper was more readably available to the average artist. Many of these are still in the National Portrait Gallery in London.
Sir Francis Galton’s uncle Erasmus Darwin (left), and grandfather, Dr. Erasmus Darwin (right). A painted silhouette. Galton believed that plain black silhouettes yielded better insight into character than more complicated portraits.August Edouart came to the US in 1839. He worked in Boston, Philadelphia, Washington and Saratoga Springs and other large towns or summer resorts. He cut shadow portraits of six presidents, of vice-presidents, senators, and many other leading people. Most of these are still in British or American collections.
A large profile hollow-cut from cardboard and mounted on black cloth by Nelly Parke Custis of her grandfather, George Washington. In order to obtain this likeness, she traced his life-sized shadow seen in the sunlight on a wall at Mount Vernon.
The conditions during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in America were ripe for silhouette artists. The artist could easily travel with their tools of the trade: paper and scissors. New settlements and towns were springing up everywhere and good portrait painters were scarce. The quickly made, inexpensive portraits suited the hard working early settlers. Silhouettists have left America with a national heritage of portraiture. Without them the facial likeness of men and women who were important to American History would be completely unknown.
Part of the frieze of life-sized silhouettes around the walls of the London Sketch Club
Silhouettes have been on the verge of extinction for the past fifty years with a limited number of specialized artists who are typically found only at craft shows, as unusual entertainment at special events or at Disney parks. It is an art that needs to be continued and saved.
PProfile of Thomas Kempshall, Congressman, cut and signed in 1841 by August Edouart.
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I am interested in purchasing any silhouettes by Eveline von Maydel. Please contact me shouldyou have any available.
Armin Allen
arminallennyc@aol.com
Hi, I have done silhouettes for over 35 years, and am ranked by the Guild of American papercutters as a premier silhouette artist. I have worked all over-the-world, and have the world speed record. Of course, I did silhouettes at Disneyland and DisneyWorld while in highschool, during college, and after college. I do the French, English, Polish, Mexican, German, Japanese, and Dutch styles of papercutting. Sincerely, Cindi Harwood Rose
Noted Silhouette artist, Cindi Harwood became the world’s top silhouette artist of the century when she appeared on BBC TV doing profile cutting, doing the cast on air, in 20 to 30 seconds each. They were very accurate. Her animal and human paper portraits go deeper than the ususal quick-study, they show fashion and character.
Traditional silhouette cutting can be made by C. Harwood Rose, who donates all her profits to Silhouettes for Survivors. I found master silhouette artist, Cindi, through the Rose Ribbon Foundation. Harwood-Rose does the most detailed silhouettes in the 21st century.
Thanks so much the insight about silhouette artists Kara Walker, Edourt, Miers, Silhouettes by Cindi, Hanson, I looked them up. Silhouette artist, Cindi Rose, had the historic silhouettes in the traditonal famous style mentioned in Art Galleries, and museum silhouettes by C. Harwood and Augustan Edourt, and Karl Janson.
Cindi Rose, America’s premier silhouette artist, did silhouettes at Macy’s for Black History Month. It is wonderful that someone with great talent like her, will exemplify artistic genius for venues around America, she was there for Ebony Magazine.
I worked for Walt Disney as the art manager in California and in Florida. I am not sure if Milton Tucker used a machine to cast a shadow for his work, or a template, which is done where it stamps out the silhouette, like the silhouette machine does sold at Michael’s. I did work with great silhouette artists including Vincent Torterra, Rico Prosperoso, Cindi Harwood, Suzy Zawodney, Shiron and Miguel Lawdy. Rico and Vincent also worked in the California locations, as did Cindi, who started at the Disney concession owned by Jess Rubio at Astroworld. She amazed me, she just picked up the scissors, and cut-out a perfect profile of me, without any training. She was supposed to be either a cashier or a portrait artist, but seeing her talent, we fired our current silhouette artist, and sent him back to California, and had Cindi work 24/7. I am not sure what happened to her, but she did out-produce any silhouette artist on record in speed, and captured the exact profile, in seconds.