Jorden, Walter

Introduction:

The breathtakingly minute detail work of Walter Jorden leads to the belief that silhouette work was not - unless he was indifferent to money - his main source of income. Each of his immaculately produced extant profiles must have taken much more time to complete than the average commercial profilists took to complete their works.

Both Jorden brothers, Walter and Richard, produced silhouettes in roughly the same period. As Walter's appear slightly earlier than Richard's it has been presumed that he is the elder brother. No biographical details of either brother have surfaced. As the main body of their work was produced in or around Wales however, there has been speculation that the Jordens may have been Welsh.

Early work shows standard concave/convex bust-line terminations which were finished by small brush-strokes to give a fringed effect. Later these terminations showed a dip at the juncture of the arm. It is in his treatment of lace, ribbons and hat decoration that Walter shows himself to be a master. A magnifying glass exposes the painstakingly formed minute dots, zigzag lines and crosshatching which give the realistic and gauzy finish to his profiles. It is presumed this laborious work was undertaken solely with a quill. McKechnie speculates that Walter was in the main a painter or sketch artist.

Gallery Silhouettes