Silhouettes

Antique Conversation Silhouette by Rarely Found 18th Century Artist Joseph Adolf Schmetterling
  • This is a really special cut silhouette with beautiful penned and/or painted details of the clothing frills, the woman’s feathered hat, flowers in her hand and the vase on the table, her sewing basket, and the birdcage. The painting around the cut profiles is so seamless that it looks like a fully painted silhouette. Schmetterling paid such attention to detail that he even paint-decorated the spandrels around his painted oval portal to look like marbled paper. This fabulous 18th century conversation silhouette is signed and dated directly below the painted floor, in the right corner, I. Schmetterling f. 1787 Amsterdam. Interestingly, he seems to have run out of space for “Amsterdam” so it kind of crawls up the oval outline. Perhaps the sitters decided they wanted the shade to include their home city after he had already finished and signed the piece—so he went back and added it in a space too small to fit. The signature is spot on for other online works that I’ve compared with it. He generally seems to have signed “I. Schmetterling” although his portrait miniatures might have simply his initials “I.S.”. Remember that “J” did not exist in early alphabets and was substituted with “I”.

    We have very little history for Joseph Adolf Schmetterling. But we know that he produced marvelous silhouettes, both cut with painted details and fully painted. According to RKD-Netherlands Institute for Art History, he was Austrian, born in Vienna in 1751 and died in Amsterdam on August 19, 1828. He was active in Amsterdam circa 1778-1828. Schmetterling was a painter of portrait miniatures and paper-cut artist of the North Netherlandish School. Along with his profiles and portrait miniatures, Schmetterling left us painted Christian religious scenes and drawings of village scenes. His detailed drawing of Venus Gentrix resides in the Rijksmusuem along with other pieces of his work. Schmetterling’s work is rare to find, especially outside of the Netherlands where the few known pieces reside in museums and private collections. The detail is simply fantastic! He taught his two daughters Christina Josepha and Elisabeth Barbara. The work of his daughters is also highly collected and treasured by collectors and museums alike.

    This wonderful work of art is from the collection of the late Paula Peyraud. Paula Fentress Peyraud (1947-2008) was an avid collector from a young age. She was a reference librarian at the Chappaqua Public Library and her voracious love of reading prompted her to amass an important collection of books, manuscripts, autograph letters of 18th through the 20th century. As a lover of art and people, she also put together an important collection of paintings, silhouettes, drawings and prints. Luckily, this avid collector lived in her family’s substantial house which she filled with her collections—even to the point where she added on to the house for more room to collect. The works of art she collected were of high quality, from the best collections and mostly portraits. She obviously loved characters and the idea of collecting people. Her collection of silhouettes included the best known artists as well as some folk pieces. Luckily for us, she kept records of her pieces and copies of invoices and provenance will be included in the silhouettes that I will continue to offer from her collection.

    This desirable silhouette must have been one of her favorites because she had it framed in her special way that she had many of her pieces framed. It is in a period gilt frame that measures 19” x 16”. Within the frame she had conservation mat used to surround the piece and to keep the glass from touching this piece of history. Within the acid-free mat, Ms. Peyraud had the laid paper of the silhouette hinged onto another piece of acid free mat so that you can see the entire piece of paper. The paper measures 12 ½” x 10”. Ms. Peyraud purchased this rare silhouette from Post Road Antiques in Larchmont, New York in November 1975. The paper within the oval is heavily toned while the paper outside the oval is not. This leads me to believe that Schmetterling toned the oval to accentuate the black figures. As you can see in the close up photos, the laid paper outside of the paint decorated area has very little toning although it has no paint to have protected it. The paper is not brittle—I’m saying all of this because I really believe that Schmetterling used some method of toning just the paper within the oval. This is a really fascinating piece that can serve as the centerpiece of a silhouette collection. How many times do you find an 18th century silhouette at all, lest one is such wonderful condition with such a great composition? I don’t find them very often!

    #5805    Sold

    Provenance: Paula Peyraud Collection; Post Oak Antiques, Larchmont, NY.

    References:
    Hickman, Peggy, Silhouettes, A Living Art, St. Martins Press, New York, 1975, 41. Hickman mistakenly refers to Schmetterling as German although she acknowledges that he was born in Austria. She illustrates her book with a wonderful handbill used by Schmetterling. See the photos for a scan of that handbill.

    Frans Hals Museum online collection , showing very large cut conversation silhouette with similar elements to this silhouette. (see photo with this listing).

    RKD-Netherlands Institute for Art History , showing known works by Schmetterling, including silhouettes, portrait miniatures and drawings.

    Rijksmuseum online collection , showing a fully painted silhouette of Louis Metayer en Antoinette Bernard, dated 1790 (see photo with this listing).