Silhouettes

Exceptionally Rare Spaniel from Edouart's Genre Pictures
  • The dogs that I will be listing over the next year or two offer you a important opportunity to own silhouettes out of a folio that Mrs. Jackson referred to as an album of “Edouart’s genre pictures”. This genre album has long been off the market but recently surfaced and I have been lucky enough to purchase a number of figures removed from it. The album appears to have been Edouart’s personal book where he practiced figures and poses that he felt compelled to cut for his own edification. The figures from this album are of varying sizes, unlike the strict “military standard” which he used from 1827 with figures 7 ½” to 8” or less, depending on the height of his sitter. Mrs. Jackson noted that Edouart used this “military standard” from 1827 until the end of his career “except with his miniature work.” The miniature work to which she referred was saved exclusively by Edouart in this album or used for the exhibition he discusses in his own Treatise.

    Look at this adorable spaniel sitting in the Sheraton period chair that Edouart used so often. The dog and chair are cut as one silhouette. This beautiful pup looks lovingly up at an owner. He has the tiniest cut eyelash and his long wavy coat is stunningly depicted, even down to the furry tail hanging over the chair seat. In this recently emerged album, Edouart was honing the skills that make his silhouettes so desirable. And here we offer you an opportunity to own one of the dogs from his own personal album…..made only for himself and hidden in a collection for decades! What a find! The figure is 4” tall, including the chair. Bully Boy is framed in a period bird’s-eye maple frame behind early glass. I’ve gently mounted the pup with a tiny hinge of Japanese rice tape to a cream-colored acid-free paper which is laid to an acid-free ragboard. On the back of the ragboard we are putting a stamp to authenticate all of these silhouettes as from The Archive Scrapbook of Augustin Edouart. If you want further provenance, I’m happy to add my own collection stamp at your request. These silhouettes will be so desirable in the future and you will be happy to have this authentication. Framed size 5 ¾” x 9 ½”. The veneer has a bit of loss and some cracking to the upper right corner down to about 3 o'clock. The figure is in fine shape with a bit of the fur on the tail having bent and been restraightened with just a tiny bit of loss to the blackening. Hard to notice. Circa 1826-1845.

    #5888    Sold

    References:

    Edouart, Augustin, A Treatise on Silhouette Likenesses, Longman & Co., Paternoster-Row; and J. Bolster, Patrick-Street, Cork, 1835.

    Jackson, Mrs. E. Nevill, Silhouettes A History and Dictionary of Artists, Dover Publications, Inc., New York, 1981 (published as an unabridged republication of Jackson’s Silhouette: Notes and Dictionary, Methuen & Co. Ltd, 1938), at 98-99.

    Please see the Silhouettist Bios page for more information about Edouart.