Name/Title
Portrait SilhouetteContext
This cut black paper profile of a preacher, is part of a series of 9 profiles capturing the silhouette of the Anglican clergyman Charles Simeon (1759-1836) preaching from the pulpit in Cambridge in 1828. The Neill-Cochran House Museum houses a second of the total of 9 profiles in its collection. The work is signed and dated in the bottom left corner “Aug. Edouart fecit 1828” (Augustin Edouart did it in 1828).
Silhouettes must have first appeared in England in about 1700 and by the end of the century their popularity had spread to France. In the late 19th century, a few French artists introduced silhouettes to the United States. However, it was not until 1839 that Augustin Édouart (1789-1861), the most prolific silhouettist to work in the United States, arrived in New York.
The French born Édouart, first immigrated to England in 1815, where he worked as a French teacher and made portraits in wax. Supposedly he cut his first silhouette at a dinner party in 1825, and 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. Édouard fashioned the two silhouettes now at the Neill-Cochran House Museum during his stay in England.
Upon his arrival in New York, Édouart traveled extensively throughout the United States, and made cut silhouettes of many eminent Americans, creating a visual record of the period.Acquisition
Accession
1968.11Source or Donor
Mrs. John W. McCulloughAcquisition Method
GiftMade/Created
Artist
Augustin Édouart, 1789-1861