CHAPTER VII SILHOUETTES The Profile Painter-Eighteenth-century Artists in England-The Potter and the Silhouette"Scissorgraphists "-The Last Days of the Silhouettists-Modern Developments of the Technique. IT has become fashionable to collect silhouettes. In consequence a good deal of study has been paid to the simple art of the painter of these old-world black profile portraits. His business cards have been unearthed, and he has been found to have been "Under Royal and Distinguished Patronage." His work was on glass, on plaster, and on ivory He decorated snuff boxes, patch boxes, lockets, and his portraits are often found on elaborate vases. In its highest moods his work was painted. The "cut out" is another style. The profile painter, when he attempted portraits and worked solely in black, worked in one dimension. He limited himself to the black outline to obtain the correct likeness of the sitter. There was no three-quarter face for him; he must have the exact profile, or his subject would be unidentifiable as a shadow. But the profile unaccompanied by the lines of the mouth, the nostrils, and the soul which is written in the eyes, is apt to lack the true delineation of character which all portrait painters aim at. The art of portraiture demands something more than form, it requires something more even than dexterity with the pencil. It is noticeable that, working in solid black, the artists clung to accessories of costume which were strongly defined. The feathers of a hat, a military epaulette, the sword or the sword hilt, or anything peculiar to the fashion appertaining to the sitter, was at once seized upon to help out the problem of suggesting identity. In assessing silhouettes, therefore, at their artistic value one must not overlook the extraordinary difficulties that beset the artist, difficulties that he attempted to overcome in various ways, until in so doing he abandoned the solid black and wandered into other techniques alien to his first methods. The pure silhouette obtains its effects by the use of black only. The composite silhouette, alluring as it is with coloured costume, is another technique, and certainly does not rely upon the contrast of black with white for its appeal as a portrait. This is readily seen in Rowlandson's portrait of the Lieutenant of the Tower of London, illustrated (p. 303). When reduced to black and white as it now is, much of the charm due to colour has vanished. PORTRAIT OF GEORGE III. Written label: Hamlet, Profile Painter to Her Majesty and the PORTRAITS OF GEORGE III., PITT, AND FOX. Label: Rosenberg, Profile Painter to His Royal Highness the Prince Regent and Inside measurement 8 in. by 6 in. (In the collection of H. Sutcliffe Smith, Esq.) |