Gerard, Ebenezer (McKechnie Section 1)

Recorded by Woodiwiss (notebook) with an address at 1 Davey Street, Norwich, and a note that the artist charged 1s. each for his profiles. I recently acquired a bronzed silhouette by Gerard (illustrated), and another silhouette is known to be in private possession.

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Possibly the charge of 1s. was for plain black cut profiles. Judging from the appearance of the illustrated example, Gerard was in practice c. 1815. Since the sitter is an undergraduate, it is possible that he worked for a time in Cambridge. The date of c. 1815 is suggested by the buttonholes in the lapel turn of the sitter's coat, and by the cut of his hair.

This profile is bust-length, and, measuring 3 in. high, larger than most contemporary work. The piece is cut from black paper and is bronzed with reasonable skill, yellow paint being used as well as gold, which is reserved for those parts requiring the most highlighting. The shirt-collar is left white, and completed with some grey shading, with a neat line along its edges. The long, curved sloping bust-line termination is by no means peculiar to Gerard's work. The papier mâché frame has a hanger formed as the crown of a marquis. Unless this crown was used purely as a decorative device, it seems, therefore, that the sitter may well have been a marquis, especially since ducal or royal crowns were incorporated in the hangers of other portraits of sitters of high rank. It is also possible that Gerard may previously have taken a profile of a marquis, and thus considered that he was entitled to incorporate a marquis’s crown in his hangers as a matter of course.

Gerard used a trade label. Its text is that of a poem by Alan Ramsay, originally written in honour of the profilist Edward Foster and published in the Macclesfield Courier in 1811. (For the complete text, see under Edward Foster, Section Two.) Foster is known to have worked in the eastern counties; he was, in fact, in Needham Market, Suffolk, in 1820. He may have met Gerard, and given him permission to use this poem on his trade label, although it is equally possible that Gerard did not consult him on the matter.