Silhouette production techniques

Cut from paper or card

Cutting from paper or card is one of the oldest techniques for creating silhouettes and remains popular with modern artists. However, techniques have developed since the first simple examples were produced during the mid-18th century.

The photograph to the left illustrates two pairs of modern scissors suitable for cutting silhouettes. The pair to the left are left-handed stainless steel 'iris' scissors, the pair to the right, standard right-handed scissors.

There are two different cutting methods. Traditionally, using the ‘standard-cut’ technique, the outside of a sheet is pared away, to leave the finished portrait.

Alternatively, an artist can make a ‘hollow-cut’, which sees the centre of a sheet removed to produce the portrait.

One of the greatest challenges facing early cutters was the unavailability of black paper. Pre-died black paper was not produced until 1826, so early artists were faced with the challenge of ‘blackening’ sheets of white paper. A number of materials were used, including lamp black and burnt animal bones, with varying degrees of success. It is thought to be the difficulty of accessing black paper that brought about the ‘hollow cut’ method. In this technique the silhouette was cut out of white paper, with the outline of the portrait left in the centre of the page. The paper was then placed over black cloth, or other dark media, to create the silhouette.

The mass availability of pre-dyed black paper revolutionised the silhouette industry. Production became much quicker and costs dramatically reduced, ensuring the continuing popularity of the trade. By the 1840s paper in a variety of colours was available to complement the black, from greys and browns to deep red and pink. Today, cutters use a wide variety of surface textured and coloured papers.

Many late-18th and early-19th century cutters would have used a machine to trace the outline of the sitter’s profile before cutting. These came in various configurations, including ‘shadowgraphs’ and a rather fantastical contraption known as a ‘physiognotrace’, designed to capture a sitter’s profile ‘automatically’ by passing a rod over their features while a pencil attached to the other end traced their features.

Some machines could make portraits of various sizes, others only produced life-sized outlines. In this case, an artist could reduce the size of a portrait using either a simple grid, or a quicker-to-use pantograph; a parallelogram-shaped tool designed for scaling  images. Today most cutters sketch the profile before working freehand with scissors, but some experts can produce both standard-cut and hollow-cut work without first sketching an outline.

Before the 1760s, knives would have been widely used to cut silhouettes, as scissors were hand made and expensive. Mass production techniques led to scissors becoming widely available from 1761, and they have since been the tool of choice for cutters. Modern artists tend to favour surgical or sewing scissors, and the very best can achieve fluid shapes and fine details simply with cut lines.

Painted on paper or card

Most popular between 1760 and 1860, these forms of silhouettes often appear closest to portrait miniatures. They tend to have softer lines and richer details than cut pieces. However, they rely on a slower and more difficult technique, which some early artists found almost impossible to master.

Silhouette artists who painted on paper or card tended to do so as one part of an artistic career; Francis Torond (c 1743-1812), one of the earliest to paint on paper or card, was a multi-talented artist who established his Oxford Street Drawing Academy in 1776. Generally, painted silhouettes require an artist with some ability, not one who relies upon a machine to do the work.  They declined in popularity throughout the 19th century, and today the number of painters is far fewer than cutters.

Historically, painting materials included Indian ink, gouache, watercolour and even beer and soot. In the 19th century ‘bronzing’ was a common embellishment, pioneered by John Field. Artists used a variety of materials to achieve these golden highlights including very fine gold leaf, gold paint, yellow ochre and deep cadmium. Backgrounds were generally painted in watercolour paint, of various shades and depths. Gum Arabic was a typical finishing touch, washed on the surface of painted silhouettes to give a shiny, protective finish.

In the same way as cutters, painters would begin with a sketched outline, though this was far more likely to have been drawn by hand than machine. The outline was drawn on a rough sheet, and then traced or rubbed on to a finer piece of card or paper for painting. The painter would use a variety of colours, shades and materials to complete their profile. ‘Body colour’, the term used to describe coloured additions to the bodies of full-length profiles, was often shades of grey. However, the face was and is always in black. Details of the silhouette such as hair, feathers or lace could be added with layers of thinned coloured paint, built up over many applications.

Painted on glass

Once of the later techniques to emerge, artists have been painting silhouettes on glass since the end of the 18th century. As with other styles of painting, it has declined in popularity since the mid-19th century.

Typically, silhouettes were painted on the underside of flat or convex glass. They were then mounted on top of a backing, generally plaster or wax, with a gap left between silhouette and base. This allowed a shadow to be cast behind, enhancing the contrast and increasing the depth of the piece. One of the greatest difficulties of this technique is that the artist has to work in reverse. Silhouettists who worked on glass tended to be very accomplished artists.

Some painters on glass worked on top of a pre-painted background, rather than painting directly onto the glass. Isabella Beetham pioneered a technique called ‘fingerpainting’, where a solid black profile is painted over a base dabbed on with the fingers. The silhouette itself can be painted in watercolour or oil paint, often with the addition of gum Arabic for consistency. Silhouettes painted on glass do tend to have a greater level of detail, particularly regarding hair and clothing. Highlighting could be produced by simply scratching through the base with a fine needle. Early artists had difficulties with the consistency of paint mixes. This has been improved by modern innovations in paint production.
Important historic examples of painting on glass are the ‘Etruscan’ profiles of Jason Spornberg and the ‘anti-Etruscan’ work of Charles Rosenberg, both active in the 19th century. Spornberg’s ‘Etruscan’ portraits are distinctive for their vibrant profiles in vermillion enamel with scratched Etruscan style pattern borders. Rosenberg’s  ‘anti-Etruscan’  portraits were painted in black then backed in orange paper.

Painted on plaster

More than any other technique, this method is associated with a single artist; John Miers. Miers was a prolific and highly accomplished artist active in the late-18th and early-19th century, who worked almost solely on plaster. He is responsible for the vast majority of extant historic silhouettes painted on plaster. As a technique, painting on plaster enjoyed great popularity towards the end of the 18th century but died out fairly rapidly after 1800, and is rarely practiced today.

John Miers was not the only artist who worked on plaster; other notable artists included W Phelps, Thomas Patey and John Smith of Edinburgh. However, Miers’ work is generally considered the most accomplished and his London-based studio was responsible for a vast amount of profiles. The technique for producing painted silhouettes on plaster was broadly similar for all artists. Most important was the consistency of the base; typically produced from chalk or plaster of Paris, it had to be smooth surfaced and evenly sized. Generally, artists working on plaster took their outline with a machine, traced onto rough paper then transferred onto the plaster. Due to the composition of the base, they were somewhat limited in their choice of paint. Traditional mixtures of pine soot and beer were a typical choice. This produced a very dense black, which could be thinned to show details of clothing or hair. Lacking in colour, the beauty of a profile painted on plaster comes from the skilful rendering of these details, from the curls of hair to the flow of veils – something John Miers was particularly skilled at.

Painting on plaster was very much a short-lived fad, which barely survived the death of John Miers in 1821. As a technique it had some advantages; mainly that plaster was a cheap material to work on, and provided a good, white, contrast for the black of the profile. However, it has been almost entirely abandoned by modern profilists, who dislike the limitations of the format and fragility of the base over time.

Painted on ivory

Painting silhouettes on ivory is a relatively difficult and very expensive process. Traditionally it was reserved for the embellishment of jewellery pieces and small ornaments, such as brooches, tie pieces and snuff boxes. A very small number of cabinet-sized bust length pieces and wall hangings have been discovered, but these are in the minority. It is not a particularly popular technique amongst modern artists.

Silhouettes painted on ivory were most popular towards the end of the 18th and early 19th century. They were often set into jewellery pieces, as an alternative to a more traditional coloured profile. Important examples of this include ‘mourning rings’, which featured a portrait of a recently departed loved one, and lockets designed to hold a discreet profile of your betrothed. The black and white of profiles on ivory were considered particularly appropriate for mourning ornaments of all types.

Because of the expense and fragility of ivory, pieces tended to be small. Artists would typically take an outline with a machine, which was then reduced to the size of the profile. The brushes used to paint the silhouette were by necessity incredibly small, and artists would often use a specially designed machine to steady them as they worked. Ivory is generally a difficult medium to paint on; its naturally ‘oily’ surface requires treatment with an acidic wash if watercolour paint is to be used. The popularity of these pieces declined sharply in the late 19th century. The technique is rarely used today, as is appropriate, given that the ivory trade is now subject to the restrictions imposed by CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) ban.

Painted on porcelain

Painting silhouettes on porcelain was far more popular in continental Europe than Britain. The German Furstenberg and Meissen factories were famous for their porcelain and enamel tableware decorated with the profiles of continental royal families. The majority of existent British pieces come from George III’s golden jubilee in 1809, but even these appear to have been produced in small amounts. The relative unpopularity of silhouettes on porcelain in the UK has puzzled modern scholars. Some suggest that manufactures were reluctant to put such a ‘cheap’ art form on their product. Others that the popularity of Wedgewood’s white on blue portrait medallions effectively destroyed the market for traditional black on white silhouettes.

Enamelled

Enamelled silhouettes are related to those produced on ceramic, in that the enamel itself is a glass-like surface material, somewhat akin to glaze. Most often though, the enamel layer is applied to a metal substrate.

Continental Europe / Britain.

The relative unpopularity of silhouettes on xxx.
 

Printed

A trade in printed silhouettes is not new. Since xxx

FROM CB

In the late 19th and early 20th century several illustrators employed designs of similar
appearance for making book illustrations. Silhouette pictures could easily be printed by blocks
that were cheaper to produce and longer lasting than detailed black and white illustrations.
Silhouette pictures sometimes appear in books of the early 20th century in conjunction with
colour plates.