Customer Reviews

Silhouette: The Art of the Shadow

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This book ,by Emma Rutherford is the most beautiful and sumptuous book on silhouettes I have ever seen.

Silhouettes in the 18thcentury were known in England as "shadows" or "shades" and in the early 19th century as "profiles'. Dorothy Wordsworth wrote to her friends in 1807, asking them to "send their profile" to her.

In France they gained the term "silhouette" by association with Etienne de Silhouette who was appointed France's Comptroller General( an equivalent post to our Chancellor of the Exchequer) during the year 1759 by Louis XIV. He levied land tax on France's nobles and reduced their pensions, and furthermore hurt their pockets by taxing all external signs of wealth. Opposition from the ancien regime,the nobility and the church-previously exempt from such audacious taxes -was loud. After only eight months in office he was forced to retire from his post to his château in the countryside.
There are two theories regarding the adoption of the term silhouette for this type of portraiture, and both reflect Monsieur Silhouette's unpopularity. The first comments upon the fact that taking a silhouette is a very quick process and as such it reflected Etienne de Silhouette's very short tenure in office. The second theory has it that as this type of portraiture was, in it's simplest state, the cheapest form of portraiture available at the time, it deserved to be named for him. Etienne 's hated penny-pinching methods of raising tax may therefore have associated his name for ever with this type of portraiture for, in France, the phrase a la silhouette came to mean to do anything " on the cheap".

It may interest you to know that the books explains that the "science" of physiognomy used silhouettes to determine a sitter's character. Physiognomy is of unknown origin,but it formed an integral part of ancient Greek medicine,and the revival of its popularity in the 18th century was attributable to the idea that the study and judgement of a person's outer appearance - particularly the face- would give insight into that person's character. Johann Caspar Lavater (1741-1801) used the term silhouette in continental editions of his very influential book, "Essays on Physionomy ; Designed to Promote the Knowledge and the Love of Mankind "(1775). In English versions the term was translated as "shades". This was a sensationally successful book both in Europe, England and the United States. By the middle of the nineteenth century over 150 edition had been published. As Emma Rutherford writes:

"It is easy to imagine that,at the height of the book's popularity to turn sideways for others observation was to ask for analysis of one's personality. Later in the 1830s Charles Darwin found that the captain of the Beagle had done just that:

"Afterwards on becoming very intimate with Fitz-Roy I heard that I had run a very narrow risk of being rejected on account of the shape of my nose! He was an ardent disciple of Lavater and was convinced that he could judge of a man's character by the outline of his features and he doubted whether any one with my nose could possess sufficient energy and determination for the voyage."

The book is sumptuously illustrated with the many, many different types of silhouettes, a term that was eventually popularised in an unsuspecting England, by the French artist Augustin Edouart in the 1820s, and describes in great detail the many different methods of taking a "profile". There were those made by cutting paper,those painted on paper, and on the reverse side of glass, or on ivory.

This book is marvellously readable, and is sumptuously illustrated. It will enchant anyone interested in silhouettes, and clearly explains the very many different types which were made. The explanation of the development of this form of portraiture in this book is admirably and carefully done. The wonderfully reproduced silhouettes also give us the chance to examine in exquisite detail tiny aspects of domestic life in the late 18th and early 19th century as recorded in them.

I have lost myself in the fabulous detail of this absorbing book and I can highly recommend it for fans of domestic portraiture of the 18th and early 19th centuries.

Silhouette: The Art of the Shadow This book is beautifully laid out to get the best of each silhouette. It shows the great variety of silhouettes such as painted, hollow cut, colored and directly cut from
black paper. If you think of silhouettes as being stodgy boring cut outs of old, fat ancestors, think again. There
are beautiful young people, elegant settings with gold surrounds and it makes one want a few of these on one's own
walls.

I've always been fascinated with the art of the silhouette, either painted or cut out. This book not only brings some of the most beautiful and elegant examples I've seen (traveling from 18th century trhough present times and artists) but classifies them in categories making the study of them more compelling. The only problem is that it does not include the paper cuts done by jewish people, nor mexican devotional paper cuts (maybe religion was a no no for the author). Still the book is a pioneer in this elegant and intriging art. A must have for illustrations lovers.