Post by PeterW on Dec 15, 2007 20:15:32 GMT -5
I recently had the good fortune to pick up an original silhouette, dating from about 1830 I'm told, complete in its black enamelled wooden frame with an oval domed glass. The picture measures approximately 3inches by 2 1/2 inches. This evening I took it out of its frame to clean the glass, and while I was about it I scanned it in to share. I thought there might be some interest in this form of pre-photography popular portraiture.
Silhouettes were made by talented artists who drew the outline of a sitter on black paper, cut it out with scissors and stuck it down to a sheet of plain paper. I've read that the skilled ones could produce a finished silhouette in 3 to 4 minutes.
After falling into decline with the growing popularity of portrait photogaphy, ambrotypes and and carte de visites, silhouette cutting had a revival as a novelty in the 1920s and 1930s. I can remember seeing silhouette cutters with small booths on seaside piers at popular holiday resorts in the 1930s. I've seen some of these for sale in antique shops and flea markets at stupid high prices, but the quality of the cutting is well below those made in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
It has recently had another revival as an amateur craft.
I have no idea who the gentleman in this silhouette is.
PeterW
Silhouettes were made by talented artists who drew the outline of a sitter on black paper, cut it out with scissors and stuck it down to a sheet of plain paper. I've read that the skilled ones could produce a finished silhouette in 3 to 4 minutes.
After falling into decline with the growing popularity of portrait photogaphy, ambrotypes and and carte de visites, silhouette cutting had a revival as a novelty in the 1920s and 1930s. I can remember seeing silhouette cutters with small booths on seaside piers at popular holiday resorts in the 1930s. I've seen some of these for sale in antique shops and flea markets at stupid high prices, but the quality of the cutting is well below those made in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
It has recently had another revival as an amateur craft.
I have no idea who the gentleman in this silhouette is.
PeterW