In class we compared traditionally painted portraits to cut profiles
(silhouettes). Students worked in groups
of two or three to try their hand at cutting a profile.
What a Portrait Can Tell Us
Since colonial times, portraiture has
been a tradition in American art. Merchants, politicians, and others of rising
stature sought to have their image and status captured in the form of a
portrait. The tradition and practice of portraiture continued after the Revolutionary War, as artists,
though still heavily influenced by England and her traditions, sought to
establish American styles and techniques. In the eighteenth and first half of
the nineteenth century, portraiture was the primary artistic activity in
America.
A portrait is more than a pretty
picture of a famous or wealthy person. A portrait is a historical and social
document revealing information about the sitter and the period in which he/she
lived. Portraits show people’s appearances, characteristics or actions.
Displayed in a home for family, guests and servants to see, a portrait served
as a symbol of the sitters’ status in society and place in their family
heritage. Because the size of the portrait was directly related to its cost,
size often, but not always, provides us with a measure of the sitter’s economic
status. Full-length portraits usually included more visual information in the
form of background material and items that a simple head-and-shoulders portrait
could not provide.
Traditionally, artists painted
portraits of famous people or others who could afford it. Only the wealthy
could afford the services of a professionally trained artist. Most Americans
were satisfied with the work of a craftsman or portraitist with little or no
education or training in the field. These itinerant painters, moving from town
to town, were often called limners. Limners would complete a
likeness of a person, often in exchange for board and lodging.
The beginning of “A
la Silhouette”
Silhouette cutting was
the popular way to recreate an image of oneself or loved one before the
invention and common use of photography in the mid 1800′s. During the years of
1500 and 1860, professional and amateur artists would either paint or cut
profiles – using paints or scissors.
Although
the true name is “profile”, “shade”, “shadow portrait” or simply “shadow”, the
word “silhouette” is taken from the French finance minister Etienne de
Silhouette in the mid 1700′s, who cut these profiles in his spare time. He was
disliked by those who were affected by his tax plans, chopping tax money from
the rich and reducing cost expenditures in the French government. Needless to
say, we weren’t well liked. Some writers explain the phrase “à la silhouette” (in the manner of Silhouette) was
applied to things which were cheap, including cheaply-made portraits cost far
less than the traditional extravagant painted portraits and sculptures. Anythingӈ
la silhouette” was a reduction to the simplest form.
Profiles
have a long romantic history including (supposedly) as a hobby by Catherine de
Medici (1500′s), as an aid to judging personality by the physiognomist Johann
Lavater (late 1700′s), as love-tokens by countless soldiers in wartime, and
posted in homes to remember family members for hundreds of years. Profiles
can be painted on glass, plaster, or paper, or cut out of paper or even cloth.
Painting
or cutting profiles by hand may have been a skill, but when “machines” for
tracing a client’s face were developed, this ‘technology’ became the rage for
inexpensive profile artists: they could impress their clients with the latest
device. Whether the machine cast a client’s shadow on the wall, or traced the
face’s shape, the late 1700′s and early 1800′s were filled with artists looking
to gain clientele – and remove clientele from their artist rivals. With the
heavy competition for portraits, even the name of the portraiture began to
change – from its origins of “shadow portraits”, the old boring name, to the
newly exotic name of profile portrait, “silhouettes”.
Portraiture
continued to be popular with heavy competition amongst the artists. With few
inexpensive opportunities for personal images, portrait artists became more
widespread. Temporary rooms in hotels, traveling artists, or permanent studios,
there were all types of portrait artists. Some traveled from rural town to
rural town, finding their clientele in their own houses. Some portraitists
frequented the resort towns in the high seasons. Some artists claimed the
highest social status of the artisan class, due to their work with the nobility
and royalty. Portraiture could be a poor artist’s skill or a rich artist’s
skill; perhaps the art was not in the hands, but in the personality.
Photography
was developed in 1829, and improved steadily and enthusiastically. When
portrait photography became possible around 1840, silhouette portraiture was on
a downhill slide. “From today, painting is dead!” exclaimed Paul Delaroche
(1839). Photographic portraits varied widely in price, up to the tremendous fee
of $10, even when average prices were less than $1 for a shirt. In 1880, portraiture was highly affordable to
the average person. In the excitement of the new medium of photography,
silhouettes slid away. It stayed for a while in rural areas and in amusement
parks, but the decline of silhouettes’ popularity had already begun.
Fortunately
in the 20th century, a few people looked past the silhouettes in attics and
museums and continued the art form, as “art” and also as amusements. And that’s
what you discover here – as a reminder of history, of romance of slower living,
and as reminders of family.
Two Activities for Homework
There are some very talented silhouette artists in America today. Watch artist Tim Arnold explain the history while making silhouettes. Click here for the video.
Click here for a video of another artist making silhouettes.
Also in connection
with our learning about how writing was done in England before and after the
invention of the printing press there is a video that explains the history of
typography in an artistic way. It is
very interesting if you have ever wondered where the fonts that we use come
from and how they have changed over time and why.
Answer these
questions from the following video - Click here for the link.
1. What is the difference between san serif and
serif fonts?
