Brookes, Frederick (McKechnie Section 1)

Not previously recorded. Miss D. Hare owns a silhouette dating apparently from the mid-1850s, when Brookes seems to have been working, perhaps in sideshow of some kind, at the Royal Aquarium at Westminster, where the silhouette was taken.

The example in question is a rather large profile of a man, the image measuring 3 ¾ in. high. It is cut from black paper; the shirt front and collar are omitted, but a tiny piece of black paper, stuck in the centre of the shirt-front, represents a pin or a button. The silhouette is very roughly bronzed; there are some pencilled lines which were intended either to indicate where bronzing was to be added, or to break up the existing rather thick bronzed strokes. The bust-line termination is jagged, partly to show the printed inscription of the artist’s name and address at the bottom of the card on the front. This inscription, evidently printed, reads, ‘Fredk. Brookes, Silhouette Artist, Royal Aquarium, Westminster’. The silhouette is unframed.

Ill. 316