DOI issue:
Nr. 221 (July, 1915)
DOI article:Book review
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43459#0100
Book Review
B
Courtesy Mr. Francis Wellesley
X
A SILHOUETTE-CUTTING^MACHINE
OOK REVIEW
i Wax Portraits and Silhouettes. By
Mrs. Stanwood Bolton. Published
by the Massachusetts Society of the
Colonial Dames of America. $1.25.
To Mrs. Stanwood Bolton, an American, be-
longs the honour of writing the first book on Wax
Portraits. This is as it should be, for one of the
greatest exponents of the art in the eighteenth
century was also an American, Patience Wright
(born Lovell), the mother of a well-known artist,
Joseph Wright, who designed the first American
coinage, and of Phoebe, who married John Hopp-
ner, the famous master of English portraiture.
How great Hoppner was may be seen from the
recent elaborately illustrated life written by W.
McKay and William Roberts.
Mrs. Bolton has been fortunate in obtaining so
many documents in the shape of notebooks, ad-
vertisements and circulars, relating to the practice
of portraiture in wax and silhouette. She has the
faculty, rare in women writers, of being able to
write in good style, and of knowing how to use
documents. Nor has she attempted to write a
history of the art of wax work from the Renais-
sance, but she has confined her researches and
comments practically to the art and the artists in
America. Mr. Charles Henry Hart, the fountain-
head of knowledge concerning art in America, has
added a suggestive introduction.
There can be no doubt but that Patience
Wright, John Christian Rauschner, George M.
Miller, and Robert Ball Hughes were all accom-
plished artists in wax.
I should like to know if there is any work by an
artist named Ronne known to exist, as I have
recently seen a charming drawing of him, done
about 1820, on which he is described as a wax
modeller, but I can find no reference to his work.
The book contains some excellent reproductions,
but we propose to add one which has not been
given in Mrs. Bolton’s work, namely, a rare
print of a famous silhouette-cutting machine
referred to on page 38 of the book. This ma-
chine was “worked in such a way that the pro-
file is a hole cut from white paper,” and Mrs.
Bolton tells us that this form is unknown in Eng-
land. Mr. Francis Wellesley, however, who is the
author of the finest work on the subject known,
“ One Hundred Silhouette Portraits,” and who has
kindly lent me the original plate reproduced here,
tells me that these “whites on black” are fre-
quently met with, though he does not regard them
as true shadow pictures at all, and I myself possess
such a portrait of Lord Byron in riding costume.
Many of the names of the silhouette artists
mentioned are not known in England, therefore
the book has an additional interest. Of course it
is known that Edouart cut some thousands of por-
traits in America, and duplicates of these have
recently been discovered by Mrs. Nevill Jackson,
who is writing an exhaustive account of them.
Hubard, too, left some of his work in England,
though as he went to America at the age of seven-
teen, this is somewhat scarce, though I have seen
many charming examples by him in Devonshire.
To show how effective this kind of portrait can
be it is only necessary to look at the portrait of
Bishop William White of Philadelphia by William
Henry Brown, facing page 72.
All lovers of the art of wax portraits and silhou-
ettes owe a debt to the author and to the pub-
lishers. John Lane.
XXII
B
Courtesy Mr. Francis Wellesley
X
A SILHOUETTE-CUTTING^MACHINE
OOK REVIEW
i Wax Portraits and Silhouettes. By
Mrs. Stanwood Bolton. Published
by the Massachusetts Society of the
Colonial Dames of America. $1.25.
To Mrs. Stanwood Bolton, an American, be-
longs the honour of writing the first book on Wax
Portraits. This is as it should be, for one of the
greatest exponents of the art in the eighteenth
century was also an American, Patience Wright
(born Lovell), the mother of a well-known artist,
Joseph Wright, who designed the first American
coinage, and of Phoebe, who married John Hopp-
ner, the famous master of English portraiture.
How great Hoppner was may be seen from the
recent elaborately illustrated life written by W.
McKay and William Roberts.
Mrs. Bolton has been fortunate in obtaining so
many documents in the shape of notebooks, ad-
vertisements and circulars, relating to the practice
of portraiture in wax and silhouette. She has the
faculty, rare in women writers, of being able to
write in good style, and of knowing how to use
documents. Nor has she attempted to write a
history of the art of wax work from the Renais-
sance, but she has confined her researches and
comments practically to the art and the artists in
America. Mr. Charles Henry Hart, the fountain-
head of knowledge concerning art in America, has
added a suggestive introduction.
There can be no doubt but that Patience
Wright, John Christian Rauschner, George M.
Miller, and Robert Ball Hughes were all accom-
plished artists in wax.
I should like to know if there is any work by an
artist named Ronne known to exist, as I have
recently seen a charming drawing of him, done
about 1820, on which he is described as a wax
modeller, but I can find no reference to his work.
The book contains some excellent reproductions,
but we propose to add one which has not been
given in Mrs. Bolton’s work, namely, a rare
print of a famous silhouette-cutting machine
referred to on page 38 of the book. This ma-
chine was “worked in such a way that the pro-
file is a hole cut from white paper,” and Mrs.
Bolton tells us that this form is unknown in Eng-
land. Mr. Francis Wellesley, however, who is the
author of the finest work on the subject known,
“ One Hundred Silhouette Portraits,” and who has
kindly lent me the original plate reproduced here,
tells me that these “whites on black” are fre-
quently met with, though he does not regard them
as true shadow pictures at all, and I myself possess
such a portrait of Lord Byron in riding costume.
Many of the names of the silhouette artists
mentioned are not known in England, therefore
the book has an additional interest. Of course it
is known that Edouart cut some thousands of por-
traits in America, and duplicates of these have
recently been discovered by Mrs. Nevill Jackson,
who is writing an exhaustive account of them.
Hubard, too, left some of his work in England,
though as he went to America at the age of seven-
teen, this is somewhat scarce, though I have seen
many charming examples by him in Devonshire.
To show how effective this kind of portrait can
be it is only necessary to look at the portrait of
Bishop William White of Philadelphia by William
Henry Brown, facing page 72.
All lovers of the art of wax portraits and silhou-
ettes owe a debt to the author and to the pub-
lishers. John Lane.
XXII