Maginn, James John (McKechnie Section 1)
Recorded by Mr J. A. Pollak in an article in the Connoisseur ('Fresh Light on Silhouette', March, 1949), Maginn seems to have been an itinerant artist, working mainly in the north of England. One of the illustrated silhouettes is of Algernon Willoughby, a little boy of the Legard family, whose family seat was at Ganton, Yorkshire. The boy's father was Henry Willoughby, of the 9th Lancers, second son of Sir Thomas Digby, seventh baronet.
Mr F. Gordon Roe owns a profile of Clara Adeline Plees (1831-1907), taken at Kingston-upon-Hull in 1848 (at the same time as a profile of her brother by the same artist); both silhouettes, though unsigned, can safely be attributed to Maginn. Later Mrs Hunter, Clara Plees was in fact Roe's first cousin once removed.
Only bust-length work by Maginn is known. He seems to have favoured a half-length style, cutting profiles of women which show the wearer's skirt well below the waist-line. Mr Graham Robinson owns an example of a length to the waist in front, but terminated by a long sloping line, so that the profile is quite short at the back. 530
Maginn worked on black paper, adding detail with indifferent bronzing. Where white collars or shirts had to be shown, he omitted these details from the cutting of the profile, and indicated their shapes by rough shading in thinned black pigment.
Most of Maginn's silhouettes were framed in rosewood, with rather heavy gilt surrounds. I have seen one example in a rather large stained deal frame, with the profile in the centre shown in a rectangle with a domed top: a fashionable style during the early Victorian period.
Only one trade label seems to be recorded; this is a small stencil, reading: .J. L. MAGINN/ARTIST.
Ills. 258, 528-531
258
Cecil Henry Legard (aged five)
Silhouette by J. L. Maginn, 27 February 1847.
The hair, fairly short, combed off the forehead, and with a parting.
The flat turn-down collar, smaller than at the beginning of the decade.
The large bow at the neck.
The boy is probably wearing a tunic dress, but the outline is hard to detect on this rather plain silhouette.
Cecil Henry Legard (aged five)
Silhouette by J. L. Maginn, 27 February 1847.
costume dating points
The hair, fairly short, combed off the forehead, and with a parting.
The flat turn-down collar, smaller than at the beginning of the decade.
The large bow at the neck.
The boy is probably wearing a tunic dress, but the outline is hard to detect on this rather plain silhouette.
J. A. Pollak collection
SECTION ONE
528
Algernon Willoughby Legard
Cut silhouette, bronzed
26 February 1847
4 5/8 x 3¼in./118 x 83mm.
Frame: giltwood
Algernon Willoughby Legard
Cut silhouette, bronzed
26 February 1847
4 5/8 x 3¼in./118 x 83mm.
Frame: giltwood
The sitter was born on 14 October 1842. A silhouette of his brother, by Maginn, is illustrated in 258.
J. A. Pollak collection
529
Clara Adeline Plees
Cut silhouette, bronzed
1848
4½ x 3in./115 x 77mm.
Frame: rosewood, with gilt surround
Taken at Kingston-upon-Hull.
Clara Adeline Plees
Cut silhouette, bronzed
1848
4½ x 3in./115 x 77mm.
Frame: rosewood, with gilt surround
Taken at Kingston-upon-Hull.
F. Gordon Roe collection
530
S. Beaumont
Cut silhouette, bronzed
14 January 1850
4½ x 3in./115 x 77mm.
Stencil
S. Beaumont
Cut silhouette, bronzed
14 January 1850
4½ x 3in./115 x 77mm.
Stencil
Inscribed below the bust-line, ‘S. Beaumont, Jany. 14th 1850’.
Graham Robinson collection
531
Stencil of J. L. Maginn.
Stencil of J. L. Maginn.
Graham Robinson collection