FASHION DETAIL

HISTORY OF SILHOUETTE
STUDENT HANDOUT

BS FASHION DESIGN
DEPARTMENT OF TEXTILE & FASHION DESIGN
 HISTORY OF SILHOUETTE
Silhouette (profile) portraiture 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.

The below overview gives a sense of the expanse of silhouette

portraits, but is no means exhaustive. There are many books with
history, artists, and examples that have thrived over centuries.

Silhouette copies from William Bache's archive book (1771-1845)

Mid 1700's
Although the common names are “profile”, “shade”, “shadow portrait” or “likeness”,
the familiar word “silhouette” is taken from the French finance minister Etienne de
Silhouette in the mid 1700’s, who was rumored to cut 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.

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. Anything “à la
silhouette” was a reduction to the simplest form. (George Washington’s
shadow portrait is shown here – although he was a man who did afford his
expensive painted portraits).Profiles have a long romantic history
including (supposedly) as a hobby by Catherine de Medici (1500’s), as
love-tokens by countless soldiers in wartime, and posted in homes to
remember family members for hundreds of years. Profile portraits
showed the images of their sitters when painted portraits were just too
expensive or unable to be reproduced.
Materials Used
Profiles can be painted on glass, plaster, or paper, or cut out of paper or even cloth – they
truly are a microcosm of the society in which they reside, showing society’s views on
social status and economics, commerce, travel habits, family values and inheritance,
fashion (or utilitarianism), and other factors which wove the details of everyday life in
every decade.

Profile portraits served an additional function – they

connected the 1700s sitter to his Greek and Roman
“ancestors”, those long- gone folks shown on the
faces of coins. Do you notice any similarity between the
profiles on the coins, and the profile portraits of the 1700
and 1800s?

Early 1800's
One of the iconic silhouette images is the portrait believed to be
Jane Austen , writing her romantic stories in the late 18th and
early 19th (1800s) centuries, captivating hearts and spirits for
hundreds of years. The decadent Regency period is especially
remembered for silhouette portraits.

Painting or cutting profiles by hand may have been a skill, but

when “machines” for tracing a clients 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 common
name, to the newly exotic name of profile portraits, “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 Enters
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 for a shirt were less than $1. But the
improvements in photographic processes through the decades of the 1800s meant that
photography was becoming the new portrait form.
Silhouettes were not really “dead” when photography was invented –
many eminent citizens enjoyed their own portraits created in profile.
One of the most well-loved set of work was created by French-born
Auguste Edouarte, a man whose ego seemed as large as his talent.

Eduoarte first began his work in the late 1830s after becoming
frustrated by the lack of artistry of machine-made silhouettes, so he
picked up scissors to try his own hand at scissor-cutting silhouette
portraits. Proclaiming his own talent, he set on a travel tour that
included his native France, Britain, and then the United States. His tales
and travels included the most powerful people on the continents.

Late 1800's
By 1880, portraiture was quite 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, harvest festivals, amusement resorts,
but the decline of silhouettes’ popularity had already begun as a mainstay
of daily portraiture.

1920's
In the 1920's there seemed to be a resurgence in silhouette interest and also portraiture.
No longer a discarded art that was surpassed by fashionable gadgets, silhouettes were
appreciated once again. Possibly the renewed interest were part of the Arts and Crafts
Movement; at any rate silhouettes gained some fans thanks to some
special (and flamboyant) artists.

Modern Day
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 at Silhouettes By Hand – an
artisan reminder of history, of romance of slower living, and as reminders
of family.