June, 1 9 13 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



223 



scissors and the cover of 

 a letter and quickly snip- 

 ped out the profile of his 

 host's daughter. This he 

 blackened with the aid of 

 the snuffers and mounted. 

 The likeness was so excel- 

 lent that he was persuaded 

 to make portraits of other 

 members of the family and 

 some of the guests. Con- 

 gratulations were showered 

 upon him, and so com- 

 menced Edouart's career as 

 a professional Silhouettist. 

 It is believed that Edou- 



portraits he ever made was 

 that of Daniel O'Connell, 

 from whom he never had a 

 sitting, but whom he saw 

 once for about five minutes 

 in the Chamber of Com- 

 merce, Dublin. Many por- 

 traits of his friends he made 

 entirely from memory. 



Edward Ward Foster pre- 

 ceded Edouart by a few 

 years and though his work 

 never attained the popularity 

 of his successor it has much 

 charm. Most of Foster's 

 Silhouettes were made at 

 Derby, where he had a 

 studio to which many celebri- 



art's first professional sitter 



was the BishoD of Bangor Silhouette portrait painted on paper. This dates from about 1850 



who paid the artist five shillings for the initial por- ties found their way. He employed a machine which he is 



trait. Afterwards he ordered forty more at the same said to have Invented himself and which he guaranteed 



price. Edouart's fame quickly spread and he was soon would "take Profiles of any Lady or gentleman in a manner 



snipping out the portraits of half the celebrities of Eng- accurately precise in Resemblance, and perform same in 



land. He was received at Court and made much of, and 

 it soon became "the thing" to be silhouetted by "the in- 

 comparable Edouart." At Holyrood Palace, he made a 

 portrait of Charles X, ex-King of France. This he did in 



the short space of one minute." 



Edouart condemned all mechanical aids to portraiture, 

 and it was possibly this very machine of Foster's which 

 aroused his special ire, for about the time when Edouart 



four thicknesses of paper, presenting one to the little Prince, was making a reputation as a Silhouettist, this machine — or 



the Due de Bordeaux, one to the Prince's sister, one to the one very similar — was on exhibition at Madame Toussaud's 



Duchesse de Berri and one to the Duchesse d'Angouleme. in Baker Street, where one could have a portrait made for 



The portrait was made while his majesty walked about the prices varying from two to seven shillings apiece, 

 room "in his usual mood of thoughtfulness." Many other machines for making profile portraits came 



Edouart was an author as well as an artist and it would into use during the first half of the twentieth century, but 



be well worth the collector's while to read his "Treatise even in those days they were looked upon as more or less of 



on Silhouette Likenesses," 

 published by Longmans in 

 1835. The work, of course, 

 has long since been out of 

 print but copies may be seen 

 at the various national li- 

 braries. In it Edouart tells 

 many amusing stories of the 

 little vanities which many of 

 his sitters evinced. One 

 gentleman, he says, who was 

 "undershot" begged him not 

 to emphasize his lower lip, 

 and in order to frustrate any 

 attempt to do so "drew in 

 his lip and thus destroyed all 

 chance of a likeness." The 

 lady with the nez retrouse 

 desired that he substitute for 

 it one of "pure Greek," while 

 the corpulent ones begged to 

 be portrayed slim and the 

 thin ones plump. Edouart, 

 getting impatient with his 

 vain clients, would turn his 

 attention to children whom 

 he loved to silhouette and 

 whose "flower-like profiles" 

 he generally succeeded in re- 

 taining. 



Edouart took his art very 

 seriously, and in order to re- 

 tain a steady hand rose early, 

 dieted himself and eschewed 

 all wines and spirits. His 

 memory for a face was re- 

 markable and one of the best Silhouette portrait by Auguste Edouart of the Bishop of Kerry and wife 



curiosities, while the Sil- 

 houettist who worked with 

 scissors and brain only was 

 regarded as an artist whose 

 work deserved serious con- 

 sideration. 



Another celebrated Sil- 

 houettist of the early Victor- 

 ian period was a young artist 

 named Hubard. Hubard 

 had a very charming person- 

 ality, and as his work was 

 equally attractive his clients 

 numbered many hundreds. 

 Among his earliest patrons 

 was Robert Browning, who 

 sat for him for a very inter- 

 esting profile portrait which 

 is now in my collection. 

 Hubard commenced his work 

 as a professional Silhouettist 

 at the age of thirteen, and 

 four years later came to New 

 York, where he opened a 

 gallery and cut portraits for 

 fifty cents each. He was 

 summoned to Kensington 

 Palace, where he made a 

 portrait of Princess Victoria 

 at the age of ten. Hubard's 

 Silhouettes are rare. 



Among other Silhouettists 

 whose work has been pre- 

 served, and who flourished 

 during the nineteenth cen- 

 tury, might be mentioned E. 



(Continued on page 225) 



