Chapman, C. W. (McKechnie Section 1)

Recorded by Jackson (Dictionary), who mentions an example owned by Mr R. Kilner. In fact there are two signed examples of Chapman's work in Mr Kilner's collection, painted on cut paper and apparently a pair. They represent a woman and a man; the profile of the woman was taken at 59 Oxford Street, London. Although I would date these profiles to c. 1826, they might in fact have been painted a little later. Graves (Dictionary of Artists) lists an artist named C. W. Chapman as exhibiting a flower painting at the Royal Academy in 1829. The near coincidence of dates suggests that the flower painter was probably responsible for the silhouettes. The quality of the painting on these examples is sufficiently good to warrant the supposition that the artist could have reached Academy standard in some field.

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The pair of silhouettes (of a woman and a man) are fairly large, being almost half-length. The hair on the profile of the woman is shown by very fine strokes of gilding, as is the detail of her dress, including the gigot sleeve. On the silhouette of the man the detail of the clothes is equally well painted, but less trouble has been taken with his hair, of which merely the outline is shown. On both profiles gum arabic has been used to stress the outline of the clothing. The profiles are mounted in rectangular card mounts, which have scalloped corners. The mounts are further decorated by dark rectangular lines, each corner being stressed by a diagonal line.

Both silhouettes are signed below the bust-line, 'C. W. Chapman, 59, Oxford St.'.

Ills. 321-323