Viner, R. (McKechnie Section 7)

Recorded by Woodiwiss ('Shades of the Past', Country Life, 8 April 1965). Viner is included here on account of a silhouette of an army officer, painted on card, formerly in the Woodiwiss collection. It is inscribed (on the brown paper with which the frame is backed) with the name of the sitter (Captain Wad Locke), the date (3 December 1830) and the name of the artist. After he had acquired this silhouette Woodiwiss told me that the inscription was difficult to decipher. If he misread `J. Viner' as `R. Viner', the artist may have been J. Tickell Viner, listed by Graves with twenty exhibits of `domestic subjects', 1821-54: thirteen at the Royal Academy, two at the British Institution (sent in from Southsea House, Threadneedle Street, in 1831) and five at Suffolk Street.

Viner painted this silhouette in black water-colour pigment, with touches of colour, including gold, for the sitter's buttons, lacing and chinstrap. To allow space for the sitter's tall shako (of which the plume is in white, shaded with pink), the profile has been set rather low in the frame. The bust-line finish is individual. The carved rectangular giltwood frame is of a type commonly used at the time (for example, by the Friths, of the Royal Victoria Gallery).

Ill. 1628