Hervé, Henry I (McKechnie Section 3)

See Section One for main entry

Hervé was probably the artist employed by William Farthing to produce silhouettes bearing Farthing's trade labels. For an account of these silhouettes see the entry on Farthing.

Most of the silhouettes on glass produced by Hervé independently are later (c. 1807-1820). They have a less solidly black appearance. On the silhouettes bearing Farthing's labels, the sitters' hair is painted in a series of black scallops, as part of the main body of the profile; on the post-I807 work it is painted in swirling lines of brushwork outside the main body of the profile. Hervé's profiles of women are plain in style, and little indication of the dress is given.

A singular feature of this artist's silhouettes is the backing of buffish-pink composition which he used both for his independent work and for the work which he appears to have produced for Farthing. (See the entry on Farthing in Section Six for details of a profile by Hervé of a man painted in the reverse manner: in line, against a buffish-pink base colour, with a black background.) This type of backing was used for portraits either in oval turned wood frames, or in papier mâché frames; it has also been seen on a small locket (about 1¼ x 1 in.), housing a profile of a man, obviously by Hervé and backed with a lock of hair.

Ills. 1079-1081