Showrooms

Offered by McCLARD SEGOTTA ANTIQUES

Offered by: Antiques + Art + Design

Description
Exceptional American Folk Silhouette with a Pale Blue Dress

Silhouettes as an art form developed from the popular pseudoscience known as physiognomy which held that an individual’s characteristics could be determined from looking at the shape of the head. As a result of the popularity of this now-defunct “science,” silhouettes became popular but the correctness of the likeness was supposed to be perfect so that the person’s characteristics could be read. The earliest American silhouettes were hollow-cut, usually with the silhouettist using a tracing machine to trace around the head in an attempt to create the closest possible likeness of the facial features. These late 18th and early 19th century profiles were meant to be cut with no adornment that would change the outline of the face. So, American silhouettists built their tracing machines and set about the populous regions, advertising that they would be in town and cutting perfect likenesses. But, in practice, using these tracing machines left an imperfect form and silhouette artists had to distinguish themselves by improving on the tracing to actually show the correct facial characteristics and adding something to the cutting that people were eager to buy. So, artists developed their own styles and varied things like bust-line terminations and added cut details such as the end of a tied stock, frilled necklines, hair combs, and such. Around 1825, a number of artists in the Northeastern US began to distinguish their work by cutting out only the head and painting in clothing and details such as hairstyles. These are what we have coined American Folk Silhouettes and we believe this genre includes some of the most creative silhouettes. Some of these artists’ work have become so popular with collectors that the anonymous artists have been supplied with folk names to identify their work. The names of some of the collected artists include “The Puffy Sleeve Artist” (lately given the possible identity of Ezra Wood, who also cut plain hollow cut silhouettes), “The Red Book Artist”, and “The Letter Press Artist”. But there are many Folk Silhouettes that are distinctly different than the work of the “named” artists. These pieces so rarely turn up that names have not been branded to the work. These pieces are certainly deserve the same degree of attention that the “named” works get. They are folky, distinctive and thoroughly American.

This is a great American Folk Silhouette that is either from an artist we rarely see or an artist who varied her/his work so much that we have not yet associated the work with one artist. The hollow-cut head of this lady is beautifully and sensitively cut. She has a delicate profile with the tiniest cut depicting her eyelashes. She wears a high comb in her hair but it is cut simply, with a slight bulge cut below the comb to define the roll of her hair. The silhouettist painted her dress an unusual pale blue with yellow polka-dotted ribbon and sash. The subject has a delicately drawn lace ruffed neck with a pelise covering from her collar to the neckline of her slim dress that is belted at the natural waist. She is a very excellent specimen of American Folk Silhouettes. In the face of so many fakes in the market, we are showing you several photos, including the reverse, so you can see that she is properly aged….this is an authentic 19th century work of art. The lovely lady resides in a period stamped-brass frame measuring 4 1/4" x 5 1/4”. Someone in the not too distant past polished the frame. You see some polish dried into the stamped design of the brass and also on the glass in a broken bubble….the good thing is that the bubble is part of the wonderful piece of early glass and almost cancels out the misguided polishing. Circa 1825.

More Information

Period:	19th Century
Creation Date:	ca. 1825
Styles / Movements:	Folk Art, Americana, Traditional
Patterns:	Traditional
Dealer Reference #:	7048
Incollect Reference #:	513255