Description:
Full-length silhouette of Major Hugh Maxwell (1733-1799), in uniform, on his prancing horse with a section of fence in the background, drawn in black ink, ink wash, and dark brown watercolor on a sheet of paper. It is inscribed in ink at the top of sheet, "Major Hugh Maxwell of Charlemont / Massachusetts", and signed and dated at the lower right corner, "F.C. Harlem / 1781." "F.C." are the initials of Frederick Chapman who apparently worked in military camps in New York; Harlem, an area in Manhattan, was where the image was drawn. Maxwell was present at the successful attack on De Lancey's Loyalists at Morrisania (now an area of the south Bronx, a NYC borough) in January, 1781. In Aug. 2006, a dealer at an antique show in Manchester, NH, had a similar silhouette of a standing officer signed "Frederick Chapman." Silhouettes must have first appeared in England in about 1700, when William and Mary reportedly had their profiles done. By the 1720s, silhouettes (or shades as they were known in Great Britain) had become an established novelty, and by the end of the century their popularity had spread to France. By the end of the 18th century, a few French silhouettists had introduced profiles to the United States; however, in the summer of 1839, the French artist Auguste Edouart (1789-1861), the most prolific silhouettist ever to work in the United States, arrived in New York. Driven from France by hard times under Napoleon, Edouart first immigrated to England in 1815, where he worked as a French teacher and made portraits of animals in wax. In 1825, he cut his first silhouette, supposedly at a dinner party in response to a dare to produce a better profile than one owned by his host; many more silhouettes of English men and women followed. Arriving in NYC in 1839, Edouart traveled to Saratoga where he spent 5 summers and create 100s of silhouettes of vacationers; Edouart's delicate rendering of his subjects is typical of his meticulous work. During his extensive travels throughout the United States, Edouart cut silhouettes of many eminent Americans, creating a visual record of the period. His last silhouette was cut on August 16, 1845. He always made two images; one became the property of the sitter, and he kept the other copy which he pasted into albums made for this purpose, to be used to produce duplicates for customers or as a promotional tool. The artist set sail on the "Oneida" with the intention of returning to France in 1849. The ship was wrecked off the coast of Guernsey, and Edouart escaped the disaster with ten albums of British silhouettes and six albums of American silhouettes; approximately forty albums were lost. Edouart gave all of his surviving silhouettes to the Lukis family of Jersey, who cared for him until he was well enough to return to France. Between 1790 and 1850, countless New Englanders plied the profile trade. They were an economically reasonable alternative to portraits painted in oil and portrait miniatures. For many, silhouettes were the first type of portraiture available to them - the price was within reach, the artists came to their areas, and the medium was popular as well as fashionable. In many cases, the silhouette remains as the sole portrait of an individual. For some artists, it was a full-time vocation; for others, a supplement to furniture-making, framing or gilding. For a very few profilists, portraiture represented their sole livelihood. Among the most prominent New England silhouettists was William Massey Stroud[e] Doyle (1769-1828). Born in Boston, Doyle remained there his entire life, where he undoubtedly profiled tens of thousands of Boston-area residents during his long career. Unlike Auguste Edouart, Doyle did not retain a catalogue of his customers, but President John Adams and Governor Caleb Strong were among his clients. The rage for silhouettes, both painted and cut out, continued until it was superseded by the invention and wide-spread use of photography in the 1840s and 50s.
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