During the 18th Century, people who could not afford to have their portraits painted might have had their silhouettes done. The classic black and white profiles became family treasures.
Old silhouettes are prized by antique and art collectors today. If you have old ones, consider yourself fortunate.
The profiles became known as silhouettes in dubious honor of Etienne de Silhouette (1709-1767), the French minister of finance in 1759 who tried to enforce extreme economy to replenish a treasury exhausted by war. His policies were so unpopular that he was forced to resign after nine months.
During this period, Paris fashion took on a frugal character. Men wore coats without folds; snuff boxes were made of plain wood rather than porcelain; instead of painted portraits, artists drew outlines or cut out profiles. All these fashions were called a la Silhouette, but the name survived only as applied to the profiles.
Another slant on the history of silhouettes is provided by Anthony Curtis, author of ”There`s a Fortune in Your Attic,” a Lyle Publications price guide published this year.
He writes that silhouettes ”first appeared around 1750 and were drawn freehand or by tracing the shadow of a profile on a piece of black paper. Later, more sophisticated techniques developed, such as a tracing and cutting machine invented in France. Silhouette art flourished among amateurs and was regarded as quite a drawing room accomplishment.”
When silhouettes first became popular, they were called shades or shadows. In 1767, Benjamin Franklin wrote home from London that he was sending ”the little shade that was copied from the great one.” According to the
”Concise Encyclopedia of American Antiques” (Hawthorn Books), this
”great” shade apparently was life-size and was made by Patience Wright, a New Jersey Quaker then established in England.
In his 1991 guide, Curtis reports that antique silhouettes sell for thousands of dollars at auction. An August Edouart (1788-1861) silhouette of three children with toys, cat and dog sold for $2,100. A silhouette of Isabella Beetham (circa 1753-1825) sold for $3,498. And a rectangular silhouette by William Welling of a husband and wife taking tea, signed and dated 1874, was auctioned for $4,832.
You can have silhouettes of family and pets made for a good deal less. Exposures catalog, which specializes in accessories for photographs, offers a silhouette service. Send a profile snapshot (3 1/2 by 5 inches to 8 by 10 inches) of your subject to Exposures, 2800 Hoover Rd., Stevens Point, Wis. 54481. You can call 800-222-4947 any time. A machine will take a message if no one answers.
Exposures hired artist Deborah O`Connor to make silhouettes from the photographs. A 5-inch paper silhouette costs $25 with a mat, or $42 for a mat and gold-finish wooden frame.
O`Connor, 40, is a Wakefield, R.I., resident. She said she has been practicing this art for 14 years.
”I intended to be a portrait painter, but I didn`t want to do portraits at fairs because they are time-consuming,” she said. ”I wanted something that was quick, and a silhouette is a valid piece of artwork. I didn`t realize when I started that silhouettes would be in such demand.”
O`Connor thinks the ”revival of Victorian things” has helped.
”It`s ironic that photography put silhouettists out of business, but now silhouettists work from photographs. I think silhouettes have their own special quality. They tend to capture the essence of a person; all the extraneous details that date a photograph are gone.”
