Whittle, E. (McKechnie Section 1)

Recorded by Jackson (The History of Silhouettes).Surviving silhouettes, taken in Britain, can be dated to the 1830s. At least one example was taken in London, and I have seen a group of profiles of the Duntze family, taken at Duns, near Berwick. Whittle also visited the United States; Dr W. Lehman Guy-ton, of Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, owns an example of Whittle's work taken during the 1840s in that country. No fixed place of work, however, has been recorded. Graves lists an E. Whittle, of London, who specialized in portraits and exhibited at the New Water Colour Society in 1834. It seems probable that this was the profilist, who describes himself on his stencils as 'artist' (not as 'profilist') and may have painted in water-colour. It is possible that E. Whittle was related to the better known Thomas Whittle, the painter of landscape and still life who was working in London and Bexley 1854-68. (Thomas Whittle's son, Thomas, also worked in London and Bexley, in landscape and still life, 1865-85.)

Whittle's work gives us a good impression of the appearance and costume of people, particularly of children, during the period 1830-37 (that is, during the reign of William IV). He worked both in bust- and in full-length. Whittle's full-length portraits of adults are rather small, figures of men being not more than 7½ -in. high.

More bust-length profiles seem to have been cut without bust-line termination, but the illustrated profile of the boy shows the slightly concave sloping line which is characteristic.

Whittle worked with black paper (some of which shows some 'bloom), adding detail in gold paint. He seems to have excelled in rendering women's caps, especially of the Babet type. Some very fine shading is shown on these, and minute dots indicate the delicacy of the material from which these caps were made. Whittle took less trouble with his portraits of men, and some of the painting of the hair is scanty and crude. He indicated the large white collar in fashion at the time for boys (see the illustrated profile) by cutting away the black paper and shading the shape of the collar in thinned pigment.

Two groups of children playing are illustrated. Whittle's profiles of children are charming, and although these groups are presented in the conventional all-in-a-row style, the composition, enhanced by the addition of toys and flowers, is effective.

Bust-length portraits were normally framed in papier mâché, the full-length groups in maple.

Two trade labels are known; both are stencils and both read, 'Mr. E. Whittle, Artist.' We do not know in which order these stencils were used. On Trade Label No. 1 (illustrated), so numbered because many more examples (all on bust-length silhouettes) have been seen, the inscription appears once. On full- length silhouettes (including the two illustrated groups) this label is repeated in a strip across the back of the card on to which the figures are pasted. On Trade Label No. 2, seen on bust-length and full- length examples, the artist's name is in Gothic lettering.

Ills. 209, 623-628