_Shadowgraphy_ was frequently used by the artists who took the portrait
in shadow with or without the patent chair and wax candle so carefully
described by Lavater, while some silhouettists are content to describe
themselves as artists.
It was August Edouart, the Frenchman, who, wishing to emphasize the
superiority of his methods over the machine-made shadows of his day,
first used the words silhouette and silhouettist, or silhouetteur, in
England. So great a novelty were these names that Edouart relates in his
treatise how visitors constantly came to his salon to obtain the new
silhouette portrait, and retired disappointed when they found it was only
the familiar black shade which was offered to them.
Not only has there been much confusion in the popular mind with regard
to the name of the silhouette, but also on account of the many different
processes, and mixture of processes, used in their execution. Many
silhouettists, as we have said, used several different ways of gaining
the desired result. Mrs. Beetham, for example, painted exquisitely on
ivory and plaster, with and without gold; she also cut out black paper,
pasted it on card, and finished the edges with softening lines of paint
on the background. This artist also painted on plaster and also on glass,
so that very considerable study is required in order to judge unsigned
examples.
Occasionally the whole process in silhouette cutting is reversed, and
not only is a white paper portrait mounted on black, as in Mrs. Leigh
Hunt’s silhouette of Byron, but the portrait is cut as a hole in a sheet
of paper, and, on placing black paper, silk, or velvet at the back, the
portrait outline is seen. The author owns an interesting silhouette
locket in this manner, but examples are rare in England, though there are
several at the Congressional Library at Washington.
Shadow portraits began to receive popular attention about 1770. At this
date a picture was painted by J. C. Schenan (1740-1806), who also worked
under the name of Johann Eleazar Zeisig.
The picture, which was extremely popular, was called “L’Origine de la
peinture ou les portraits à la mode.” This showed a modern version of
the old Greek legend. A lady, in a modish cap and deshabille, is having
her shade outlined by a youth who holds a paper against the wall. This
is the first hint at the movable picture which can be executed in one
place and hung elsewhere; hitherto the wall or ground itself has been in
place of the canvas. Two children are in the foreground, one holds up
the cat while the other wields the pencil; another child makes a rabbit
shadow with his fingers. Against the wall are many shadow pictures, all
life-size, including one of a man, a dog, and a donkey. The dedication
of the engraving of this picture runs thus: “Dediée à Son Altesse
Serenissime Monseigneur le Prince Paladin du Rhin Duc regnant des Deux
Ponts.”
[Illustration: SILVER WEDDING ANNIVERSARY PICTURE WITH PORTRAITS AND
EMBLEMS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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