Horsefall, Marius (McKechnie Section 2)

Known from an example formerly owned by Woodiwiss, who told me that he believed Horsfall to have worked in the Midlands, perhaps around Nottingham. As the name of the sitter as well as that of the artist was inscribed on the silhouette, there is no question of the sitter having been wrongly identified as the artist. The appearance of the silhouette suggests that Horsfall was working during the early 1830s.

The extant silhouette is painted in gum arabic against a dark-grey background. It is most like the work of J. H. Gillespie, except that the bust-line termination is almost straight, instead of sloping, and the gum arabic is less skilfully applied. Near the junction of the arm with the rest of the profile (the best place to examine the application of gum arabic) there is no `fan formation', such as is seen on Gillespie's work, but a solid mass of gum arabic.

The silhouette is signed on the back.

Ill. 848