The tracing of shadow pictures was considered to be of Greek origin, and the enthusiasm for any art of Greek origin was assured, and the amateurs prospered.
The inevitable book of instruction for amateurs appeared in 1779 in Germany, “Directions for silhouette drawing, and the art of reducing them, together with an introduction dealing with their physiognomical use.” It must be remembered, in its early days silhouetting was supposed to be the handmaid of scientific research, and it was very many years before the artists in black portraiture threw off this pose in connection with their work. This book is published by Römhild, Leipzig.
Another little book of 258 pages, with eleven copper-plate illustrations, is now very rare, dated 1780; it was published by Philip Heinrich Perrenon, bookseller, of Münster. Rules are given, advice as to materials, the reduction of portraits, their finish, ornamentation, etc. Processes on glass, in relief, etc., are described.
Pantographs and other mechanical processes were invented, the names of such things varying from the high-sounding parallelogrammum delineatorium to the “monkey” indispensable for silhouette artists. Other books are described more fully in our chapters on the processes.
The silhouette mania affected the engravers of the day; black portraits in copper-plate appeared, and were used to illustrate histories and biographies. Also domestic scenes, with elaborate backgrounds, such as the death of the Empress Marie Theresa, which occurred in 1780. This was to be had of Loeschen Köhl, of Vienna, in the High Market, No. 488. It appeared in “An Almanack for the year 1786,” with fifty-three silhouettes, published by Loeschen Köhl.
Large engraved silhouette pictures also appeared, and were sold separately, such as the Festivity on the Prater. Another variety now in the Höhenzollern Museum in Berlin shows Friedrich Wilhelm II., with his wife, four sons, and three daughters, walking in a garden. This picture is painted on glass, and is mounted on a red ground. Later, August Edouart achieved elaborate pictures, such as a skirmish of cavalry or sports. His figures were entirely scissor-work—and extraordinarily clever. The black portraits were mounted on drawn or lithographed backgrounds.
Many English books of a biographical nature were entirely illustrated with portraits in silhouette, notably, “The Warrington Worthies,” by James Kendrick, M.D., published in 1854 by Longman Brown, London; “Hints, designed to promote Beneficence, Temperance, and Medical Science,” by J. C. Lettsom, published in 1801, by J. Mawman. In the second volume of this work there are nine fine silhouette portraits.
In the memoir of Hannah Kilham, by her daughter-in-law, published by Darton Harvey, London, 1837, there is a beautiful silhouette portrait. Field, of the firm of Miers & Field, notifies on his trade label that he cuts silhouettes suitable for “frontispieces in literary work.”
In the porcelain factories of England and Germany silhouette pictures were used for the ornamentation of gift-pieces, and also for souvenir examples. In connection with such factories we may mention that a cup was made on which Dr. Wall, of Worcester fame, is painted in silhouette, and at the museum belonging to the Meissen factory, sixteen miles from Dresden, there is a portrait of Johannis Joachim Kändler, born 1706, King’s Court Commissioner and model master at the Royal porcelain factory. Rare and interesting specimens of silhouette porcelain are dealt with in a separate chapter. In glass, too, silhouette portraits were etched in gold leaf and in black on glass, which was then enclosed in another transparent layer of glass for protection.