Evans, H. (McKechnie Section 1)

Recorded by Woodiwiss (British Silhouettes) who owned a silhouette which, however, he did not illustrate. This was a full-length profile of a uniformed subject, inscribed, in block letters, 'H. Evans, Plymouth, 1826'. Evans's name is not included in the Plymouth directories for 1822 or for 1830 (the directories for the intervening years are not available), nor does he appear in any indexed lists of Plymouth artists.

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I have only seen a photograph of the work of this artist. In his notebook, Woodiwiss noted that the full-length example which he owned was of 'unusually small size'. It was cut either from black paper or white paper rubbed with black, and was apparently rather poorly embellished with gold. A fine brush seems to have been used, and the detail consequently appears rather spidery. 'The painting of the sword (carried from a sword-belt worn over a tailcoat-type jacket) is not so sharp or well executed as that of a similar portrait by A. Darbyshire of the Adelaide Gallery, also illustrated in this Section. The curious combination of the top hat (of a shape typical of the 1820s) and the slung sword is accounted for, according to Woodiwiss, by the fact that the portrait represents a boatswain. The figure stands against no base, except for the shadow thrown by one of his feet.

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