Very fine watercolor silhouette of a young boy with exceptional China White detail. Many silhouette artists were also portrait painters which might go a long way towards explaining the skill with which this profile was done.

There were three major methods for producing silhouettes . . . hollow cutting, cutting and pasting, and painting. Of the three major American silhouette types, the painted method is by far the least common. A painted silhouette is just that. It was completely painted, usually in black as is the case here and then the artist added detail by using Chinese white, watercolor, or bronzing. In this case the artist chose the Chinese white along with some bronzed details. The profile is very well defined. There is a strong indication achieved by the pure talent of the silhouette artist that this child had chunky cheeks. Notice the puffiness under the chin also. This aspect of the silhouette provides a fine example of how a talented artist can provide much information with the least amount of detail. The ruffled collar and the detail on the jacket are fine added touches. The oval silhouette is framed in a papier-mache frame that is 5" x 6" and appears to be original to the piece.
$1250.00
R9H15227