Adolphe, Edgar, Monsieur

Introduction:

Best known as a talented Brighton-based profile painter, French-born EDGAR ADOLPHE (ca.1807-1890) was initially a Writing Master before becoming an itinerant commercial silhouettist in 1833. Combining both occupations in tandem, he would also, like other artists at work in the mid-19th century, adopt the relatively new art of photography. Briefly imprisoned for libel, and later in court regarding marriage issues, research indicates Adolphe was also a notably feisty individual.

Proficient and prolific, Adolphe crafted black, bronzed and coloured bust-sized, three-quarter and full-length profiles, coloured profile miniatures and coloured full-length works with sitters' faces delineated. Several of the latter housed in the collection of Brighton and Hove Museum are of the town's 'personalities'.

Chosen base colours were greyish-green or sepia, though most extant examples evidence a bluish dark-grey ground. Highlighting is generally of good quality though gum arabic can be too thickly applied. Full-length figures are virtually always posed on creamy-yellow paving flags and virtually all are signed on the obverse "Adolphe" or "Adolphe Brighton". Bust-sized works are often signed "Adolphe" below bust-line terminations of considerable variation. Eight trade labels, some printed on coloured paper, are recorded; all bar 2 are specific to Brighton.

Doubtless used 'on the road', his first trade label records Adolphe "Miniature Painter and Profilist to LOUIS-PHILIPPE King of the French". However, having stated in THE SUSSEX ADVERTISER 22nd February 1841 that he arrived in England from Paris aged 4, and was working in Britain for the duration of the King's reign, the accreditation seems implausible.

Aged 22, and first recorded in the TAUNTON COURIER 22nd April 1829 and the NORTH DEVON JOURNAL 4th June 1829, Adolphe placed advertisements awash with equally questionable credentials. Coming "FROM THE ROYAL ACADEMY PARIS...[he offered his]...IMPERIAL & ROYAL SYSTEM OF WRITING..." to pupils aged 12 to 70. Receiving approval from the "...Royal Academy, Christ's College and...public schools such as Eton and Charterhouse where he...[taught]...his system", he also held "documents" from English and French nobility. Furthermore, being patronised by the King of France, this time Charles X, Adolphe possessed "...a Certificate from the King which could be seen by applying to his Rooms".

While the above credentials are suspect, the quality of his calligraphy appears accomplished, since he was commissioned to apply his hand to Worcester's Freedom of the City charter presented to Henry Paget, 1st Marquess Anglesey (1768-1853): the WORCESTER JOURNAL 17 December 1829 stating the "...writing...[on vellum]...was executed by M. Adolphe".

Profiles were executed from the summer of 1833. Described by a correspondent in DRAKARD'S STAMFORD PRESS 23rd July 1833 as "Monsieur Adolphe, the celebrated French artist...[the style of his profiles were judged]...admirable, the finishing most excellent and the likenesses inimitable...".

Puzzlingly, it took another 6 months before Adolphe advertised his venture into the art. The HUNTINGDON, BEDFORD AND PETERBOROUGH GAZETTE 14th December 1833 records his "...distinguished Patronage at Stamford and Peterborough. LIKENESSES in PROFILE Frame and Glass included...[were offered for 1 shilling]...MINIATURES on IVORY or CARD for Lockets, Brooches, Bracelets...[priced]...proportionately low; COLOURED and BRONZED PROFILES or PORTRAITS finished in a superior style...". In the same newspaper 11th January 1834, he advertises as "MONS. ADOLPHE, MINIATURE PAINTER & PROFILIST (to Louis-Philippe, King of the French)".

Evidenced by the HEREFORD TIMES 28th October 1835, the profiles were "...neither cut out nor taken by Machine". Two years later, the additional services of altering, cleaning, retouching or copying family pictures in oil or watercolour, were advertised in the MONMOUTHSHIRE MERLIN 1st May 1837.

The second half of 1838 saw Adolphe arrive in the fashionable marine resort of Brighton where he remained for the next 8 years. Profilists already resident there for more than a decade were freehand cutter Edward Haines (1807-1866) and the more versatile George Crowhurst (1795-1839). With Crowhurst's death in January 1839, Adolphe became Brighton's premier profilist.

Briefly lodging at 79 Kings Road, by November 1838 Adolphe relocated to 113 St.James St., a largely commercial thoroughfare, before moving to 4 East St. in 1844. In the BRIGHTON GAZETTE 8th November 1838, advertising an imminent removal from Kings Road, he records himself a Portrait, Animal and Miniature Painter. Profiles are listed, as are "...side or Front-Face sketches in Pencil or colours...[while portraits of]...Brighton Characters...[were displayed]...in the Window...". In addition, Madame Adolphe gave "...lessons at home or abroad in her much improved, fashionable style of writing...with references available".

Positive references would have been unforthcoming from the Adolphes' Kings Road landlady. The BRIGHTON GAZETTE 15th November 1838 recorded that, when investigating a commotion in the shop rented to the Adolphes, the landlady claimed she had been pinned to the wall by Madame Adolphe who stated "...it was me you D.D.old B! ". Concluding "...very bad blood existed between the parties", the magistrate bound over both to keep the peace with sureties. Little over a year later, for the first, but not the last time, Edgar Adolphe himself would appear in court.

In spring 1840, though the substance of the libels are now unknown, Charles Andrews, a St. James St. bookseller, assumed Adolphe was the source of the relevant copy that appeared in the notoriously scurrilous PAUL PRY news sheet. The BRIGHTON GAZETTE 1st June 1840 recorded Adolphe responded by painting ass's' ears on a named likeness of Andrews. Placed in the profilist's window, in turn, it placed Adolphe in court. Before the sillhouette could be ascertained by the court as a faithful likeness, Adolphe overpainted it with a candle snuffer.

Recorded in the press as "An Ass-Assassination-a laughable case of libel", it's unlikely Adolphe was amused by the outcome. Found guilty and refusing to pay a £20 fine, he spent 3 weeks in Lewes gaol from 6th June 1840, the Sussex Assizes Register recording his age as 33. Requesting his own clothes. own food, better bedding, solitary exercise, palette and materials for completing profiles and visits from his wife, his requests were, perhaps surprisingly, granted.

By summer 1840, hundreds of handbills, purportedly penned by Adolphe, appeared in Brighton, signed "Mons. Moustache Adolphe, alias the English Jew...". Described in them as 'Paul Pry's Pig' and his wife as 'a Sow' and hearing reports that Andrews and James Cullen, a St. James St. tailor were 'co-partners' in producing them, Adolphe took Andrews to court; the case was dismissed with costs. Undaunted, Adolphe prosecuted Cullen, according to the BRIGHTON GAZETTE 5th February 1841 "...not to seek damages...only protection and justice". The words were probably crafted to appeal to the Bench. Found guilty, Cullen was gaoled for 3 weeks.

Adolphe next appears in an 1845 BRIGHTON directory as an 'Artist' of 4 East St., while 'Eloise Adolphe', his wife, is listed a 'Tobacconist' at the same address. A profile miniature illustrated in McKechnie and dated August 1846 appears his last record before re-emerging in Dublin 8 years later.

The artist is first recorded in Ireland with a SAUNDERS NEWSLETTER 28th April 1854 obituary: "...in the 42nd year of her age, after a protracted illness...[borne]...with Christian fortitude, Eloise Adolphe, beloved wife of Mr. Adolphe, Portrait Painter, Grafton Street, Dublin". In October 1862, the same newspaper reported Adolphe stating she was Englishwoman Eloise Giles who he wed in Brighton. While recent research discovered no evidence of marriage or offspring, legally wed or not, their union appears less volatile than Adolophe' second marriage.

Born in England to an Irish-born minor landowner, Margaret Phibbs (1800-1879) first married in 1819. Widowed in 1832, she wed Adolphe at St. Thomas', Dublin, 15th November 1856. They separated little after a year. SAUNDERS NEWSLETTER 8th October 1862 records him summoning her to court for '...maliciously publishing a libel on him in a printed handbill'. In essence, her handbill offered a reward if it could be proved their marriage was bigamous. Wanting '...protection from the annoyance...', Adolphe stated that thousands had been posted since 1860, that while shaking a handbill she made faces at him from an apartment opposite his studio, that she'd posted him a skull, that her conduct was calculated to 'provoke him to strike her'. She countered that at some point he had knocked out 2 of her teeth and kept a woman '...of ill-fame'.

Without any proof of bigamy, the Bench dismissed the summons, though 3  years later a scattering of newspaper advertisements evidence her continued but fruitless enquiries. Margaret Adolphe died in Dublin 9th February 1879. Less than a month later. aged 72, widower Edgar Adolphe wed 40-year-old farmer's daughter Mary Fitzpatrick in the city on 3rd March 1879.

Regarding his Dublin-based career, though his first wife's obituary in 1854 and SLATERS COMMERCIAL DIRECTORY of 1856 record him a 'Portrait Painter', no signed silhouettes or profile miniatures of the period have come to light. From 1859 to 1883, multiple directories list him a photographer at various Dublin addresses. However, his final listings in THOMS' 1884 and 1885 directories show him resurrecting his initial career as 'Artist and Professor of Writing'.

The death of Edgar Adolfe (sic) was registered October-December 1890 in Dublin. His age was estimated at 74, though in fact he was 83. His place of interment is unknown.

Revised 16 January 2025 (Brian Wellings)

Gallery Silhouettes