The method most usual for profile portraits in minute size is the painting with Indian ink on ivory or plaster. We have seen these as small as a pea, but this is unusual; they are generally double that size for rings, or, for lockets and brooches, larger still.
J. Miers must have painted many of these jewels. Amongst the examples we have examined, some are plain black, probably of early date; some pencilled with gold. This process we cannot help surmising to have been a concession on the part of the artist to the popular demand which came early in the nineteenth century. In two signed examples, in the possession of the author, one is plain black—a man’s head, with tied queue wig and high stock with ruffle; the other, a woman exquisitely pencilled in gold, a lawn cap of Quaker shape on her head, a folded kerchief crossing her breast. Both are signed.
Authentic examples by Mrs. Beetham are rare, for she seldom signed her work; but there is a quality in them which usually proclaims their authorship. The nervous delicacy of the work equals that of Miers: the manipulation of accessories excels it when she is at her best.
These silhouette jewels, of fine quality, are very rare, and are much sought after. Unfortunately, like so many of our beautiful and artistic treasures, the boundless wealth of America is absorbing many good examples. Is it possible that a frame containing about forty of the finest examples of Field’s work went to America before the collection came up for public inspection in the auction room, when the Guest collection was dispersed?
A variant of the shadow portrait, painted on glass, shows a blue, rose, or green coloured paper or coloured foil taking the place of the gold or silver leaf ground. A beautiful locket in the Wellesley collection demonstrates the charm of this method to perfection. It is probably French.
In a book of instructions for the amateur silhouettists of Germany, published in Frankfurt and Leipzig by Philip Heinrich Perrenon, bookseller, of Münster, 1780, we are told: “One can use tinfoil for the ornamentation of silhouettes for hanging. When the glass is turned round, the places where the tinfoil is form a sort of mirror. If the background be black and the portrait the mirror, the effect is pretty, but it is as contrary to nature as a white shadow. It is best to have the ground of looking-glass, and to blacken or colour the silhouette.”
One of the earliest silhouettists was François Gonard, a Frenchman, whose processes seem to have been very varied. Unlike most of the early shade-makers, he did not make a speciality of any particular process. His profile portraits were painted on ivory and plaster, and were occasionally cut out in paper and engraved on copper for reproduction; in fact, he seems to have practised every kind of profile portraiture.
Born at St. Germain in 1756, he was taught copper engraving at Rouen, and was specially clever in reducing copper-plate engravings. In the Manuel de l’amateur d’estampes, Joubert relates having seen a plan of St. Petersburg engraved in minute size by Gonard, who had reduced it from one of much larger size. This brings us to the pantograph.
In Le Journal de Paris, 1788, Le Sieur Gonard, who is called a dissenateur physionomiste, announces that he is in a position to take silhouette portraits quicker than any other artist. He will make these for 24 sols each, but he will not make less than two for each person. The price of those of minute size, suitable for mounting, as boxes, lockets, and rings, is £3. He also announces silhouettes à l’Anglaise; these have the dress and head-dress added, and the price is £6 each, whether they be on ivory for wearing as an ornament or on paper to be framed. Whether the paper is scissor-work—the profile cut out of black paper—or the black drawing is made on paper, we are not told. For this latter type a sitting of one minute only was necessary, and the following day the portrait was finished.