Americana & Folk Art

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This is a great American folk silhouette with a lot of research potential.  The lady has a hollow cut head with an uncut, watercolor painted body with gum arabic enhancements to the black dress.  She wears a wide white collar, edged in lace painted in pale blue with brown shading.  A coral beaded necklace is around her neck.  She holds a book with marbled cover.  Her black dress has huge leg-o-mutton sleeves and a black belt with a large gold buckle.  Her hair is upswept into a high Apollo knot held in place with a tall hair comb.  The edge of her hollow cut head is enhanced with painted hair ornamentation and accents.  Most special is the pencil inscription on the back of the silhouette where the artist took the lady's order.  She must have come to the itinerant silhouettist and sat only long enough for him/her to cut her profile.  Then, the artist took her order for her profile body and she picked the silhouette up a day or so later.  We know that some itinerant artists worked in this manner.  For example, the Justus DaLee family knocked on doors, made quick watercolor sketches of sitters, then returned the next day with finished portraits.  The inscriptions in the back are hardly legible or totally illegible.  An enhanced scan of the back can be seen below.  What I can make out is the following:

Catherine Witting [possible Wething]

Dress _____

Bible

No. 22, A [C] enter (this is crossed out)

____ula Raseen [or Baisan] and possible pinxt (although all but pin has been cut off)

Three other inscriptions are totally illegible to me.  From the inscriptions, however, we know that the book Catherine is holding is a Bible.  We know that either this was the 22nd silhouette this artist had cut in this locale, or the style Catherine picked was presented by example and was the artist's Number 22 style.  I have not been able to pinpoint Catherine Witting or Wething, although Witting is a common German and Swedish name so her family was possibly immigrated from one of those two countries.  It is the possibility that the black painted paper used as a background for the hollow cut head may be signed and I absolutely cannot read the signature that drives me crazy!  The lady resides in a period gilt frame that measures 4 3/8" x 5 3/8".  As you can see from the images, the paper is strongly toned, there is fading to the watercolor used for the collar highlights and there is some cracquelere to the gum arabic (but not nearly as noticeable as the lights show it in the images).  A wonderful piece of circa 1830 American folk art.  Probably New England.

(#4992)     $1850

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