Atkinson, George (McKechnie Section 1)

No part of the literature on silhouettes is so fraught with confusion as that which concerns those nineteenth-century artists who bear the surname of Atkinson. Many silhouettes have been seen inscribed or labelled with the name 'Mr Atkinson', others with 'Atkinson' only, but few with the surname preceded by an initial.

One well-known piece, signed 'F. Atkinson', the subject of this entry, is the large group showing George III, with his seven sons and two sons-in-law, which originally hung at Carlton House, London, and was later owned by Francis Wellesley. It is illustrated by Mills.

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In the bottom right-hand corner of this silhouette is an inscription which reads, 'By F. Atkinson, son of G. Atkinson, Profilist to the Royal Family'. Since previous writers reversed the relationship of F. and G. Atkinson, it is not surprising that confusion has arisen. The ten royal figures are apparently cut from black paper, or blackened white paper, with the details of costume painted in gold with competence rather than with consummate skill. The whole group is placed against a background of what was probably a hall in Carlton House. It may be assumed that the group was originally owned by George IV, possibly late in the Regency period but more probably soon after he came to the throne in 1820. As two of the King's sons-in-law, the Duke of Gloucester ('Silly-Billy') and the Prince of Hesse-Homburg, are among the sitters, this piece must have been executed after 1818, since the Prince and the duke married Princess Mary (1776-1857) and Princess Elizabeth (1770-1840) in 1817 and 1818 respectively. The figure that seems oddly anachronistic in this group is George III, since, though he was to die in 1820 at eighty-two, he appears here younger and more sprightly than most of his sons. He looks, in fact, much as he might have looked in the 1770s. The Dukes of Sussex and Cambridge, born in 1773 and 1774, do look about fifty years of age. The Duke of Gloucester, born in 1776, looks a little younger than these two cousins of his; these three portraits, at least, may have been taken from life. The central figures in the group are the Duke of York and his elder brother the Prince Regent, who in fact had probably become King by the time this picture was created. George IV looks at least twenty years younger than the Duke of York. Those sitters who are not in uniform wear frock-coats which, in the early 1820s, were worn by the ultra-fashionable.

It is evident that this group had been concocted, probably mainly from earlier prints or silhouettes. The background shows a vast hall, adorned on either side by pilasters joined by swags of decorative garria husks, and with a large domed skylight. The scene represented does not appear to be the Pavilion at Brighton; it is most likely to be a hall in Carlton House. It seems that this group was commissioned by George IV soon after he had ascended the throne in 1820.

It remains to consider why an artist of only vicarious importance, chosen on account of his father's reputation, should have been asked to create this group. The artist's father was certainly Profilist to the Prince Regent at an address in the Strand, London. before 1820, and also practised in Brighton both before and after the accession of George IV (see George Atkinson, Section Two). The King therefore had two opportunities to approach George Atkinson about the composition of this piece. George Atkinson certainly produced two full-length water-colour portraits of the Duke of York and George IV (see the entry on him in Section Six), but at the time of writing no full-length silhouette by this artist has been discovered, and, apart from these two water-colour royal portraits, he appears to have produced only bust-length portraits. He probably saw the commissioning of the group silhouette referred to above as an opportunity to promote the work of his son, who, as a cutter, might be expected to produce such a piece with greater facility. Since we must conclude, from dated information about the sitters, as well as from the dress of those taken from life, that this piece was executed by c. 1821-23, we can assume that F. Atkinson was an established silhouette artist by this date.

Another silhouette, first illustrated by Jackson in The History of Silhouettes and formerly in the Wellesley collection, shows Queen Victoria with Lord Melbourne and is described by Jackson as 'probably cut by Atkinson of Windsor, pencilled with gold'. Jackson's caption suggests that she knew of no evidence that the piece was signed or inscribed in any way. This piece has since been illustrated by other writers as the work of George Atkinson (confused with F. Atkinson), but, as I have said in the entry on the Royal Victoria Gallery in this Section, the style strongly suggests the work of one of the Friths, probably H. A. Frith. (Any information about 'F. Atkinson', given by previous writers, refers in fact to his father George; it is included in the entry on him in Section Two.)

It seems that the only other documentary evidence of an artist of this name who cut and painted silhouettes in gold is of the 'Mr Atkinson' who owned a booth called the Royal Saloon of Arts (q.v.), which he established in 1839 and kept in being as late as 25 September 1844. (It is even possible, as I explain in the entry on the Royal Saloon of Arts, that silhouettes from this booth were produced by an artist called A. Wilson, engaged by Atkinson.) If this booth-manager was indeed F. Atkinson, then the paucity of signed work produced by him between the large royal group of

c.1821-23 and the establishment of the Royal Saloon sideshow in 1839 leads us to suppose either that very little is known about the son of George Atkinson, or that he was not the artist who established the Royal Saloon of Arts. Since I have not seen a full-length example backed with the stencil of the Royal Saloon of Arts, it is difficult to compare the work which emanated from it with that shown on the royal group.

In the Kilner collection there is a large silhouette of Mrs Mary Soper (née Chitty), 'of Littlefield', born 25 September 1800, with her two-year-old son, William Edward, on her knee. This piece is inscribed on the back, 'Likenesses taken in 1846 by Atkinson'. It may be by F. Atkinson, or by the Atkinson (whether or not he was the same man) who owned the Royal Saloon. We have no evidence, however, that the Royal Saloon still existed by 1846. In view of the scanty evidence, I have thought it best to illustrate this piece as being possibly the work of F. Atkinson.

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It may even be proved at some future date that the large royal group was the only silhouette produced by F. Atkinson. The connection between this group and the Soper piece, painted over twenty years later, is certainly tenuous.

It is worth noting that in The History of Silhouettes Jackson mentions a full-length silhouette of the Prince of Wales and the Princess Royal, taken in 1847, when they were young children, which was signed 'F. M. after Atkinson'. At the time Jackson was writing this piece was at Knole. The note is under the name Mackenzie.

In the silhouette of the royal group, the figures look rather stiff, and the hands are not particularly well rendered. The gilding on the figures is not outstanding, but the background is reasonably well executed. On the Soper piece, the gilding is also mediocre, but since many artists of the period produced gilding of a similar standard, we cannot deduce from this that the same hand produced both pieces.

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