A silhouette (, ) is the image of a person, animal, object or scene represented as a solid shape of a single colour, usually black, with its edges matching the outline of the subject. The interior of a silhouette is featureless, and the silhouette is usually presented on a light background, usually white, or none at all. The silhouette differs from an outline, which depicts the edge of an object in a linear form, while a silhouette appears as a solid shape. Silhouette images may be created in any visual artistic medium, but were first used to describe pieces of cut paper, which were then stuck to a backing in a contrasting colour, and often framed.
Cutting portraits, generally in profile, from black card became popular in the mid-18th century, though the term silhouette was seldom used until the early decades of the 19th century, and the tradition has continued under this name into the 21st century. They represented a cheap but effective alternative to the portrait miniature, and skilled specialist artists could cut a high-quality bust portrait, by far the most common style, in a matter of minutes, working purely by eye. Other artists, especially from about 1790, drew an outline on paper, then painted it in, which could be equally quick.
From its original graphic meaning, the term silhouette has been extended to describe the sight or representation of a person, object or scene that is backlit and appears dark against a lighter background. Anything that appears this way, for example, a figure standing backlit in a doorway, may be described as "in silhouette". Because a silhouette emphasises the outline, the word has also been used in fields such as fashion, fitness, and concept art to describe the shape of a person's body or the shape created by wearing clothing of a particular style or period.
Etymology and origins
The word silhouette is derived from the name of Étienne de Silhouette, a French finance minister who, in 1759, was forced by France's credit crisis during the Seven Years' War to impose severe economic demands upon the French people, particularly the wealthy.McLynn pp. 64–65 Because of de Silhouette's austere economies, his name became synonymous with anything done or made cheaply and so with these outline portraits.There is no mention of de Silhouette making silhouettes in his earliest record in 1834 edition Biographie universelle ou dictionnaire historique contenant la nécrologie des hommes célèbres Volume 5. Furne, 1834. P. 2850 Prior to the advent of photography, silhouette profiles cut from black card were the cheapest way of recording a person's appearance.The family name Silhouette is a French form of a Basque surname, Ziloeta; Arnaud de Silhouette, Étienne's father, was from Biarritz in the French Basque Country; this surname, whose Standard Basque or Batua form is Zuloeta, contains the suffix -eta "abundance of" and zilo, Batua zulo, "hole".
The term silhouette, although existing from the 18th century, was not applied to the art of portrait-making until the 19th century. In the 18th and early 19th century, "profiles" or "shades" as they were called were made by one of three methods: painted on ivory, plaster, paper, card, or in reverse on glass; "Hollow cut" where the negative image was traced and then cut away from light coloured paper which was then laid on a dark background; and "cut and paste" where the figure was cut out of dark paper (usually free hand) and then pasted onto a light background.
History Greek origins
Pliny the Elder recounts the history of painting in books 34 and 35 of his Natural History (c. 77 CE). In book 35, chapter 5, he writes of silhouette as a starting point in the development of painting:
"We have no certain knowledge as to the commencement of the art of painting, nor does this enquiry fall under our consideration. The Egyptians assert that it was invented among themselves, six thousand years before it passed into Greece; a vain boast, it is very evident. As to the Greeks, some say that it was invented at Sicyon, others at Corinth; but they all agree that it originated in tracing lines round the human shadow [omnes umbra hominis lineis circumducta]."
In chapter 15, he tells the story of Butades of Corinth as an originator of this modeling technique:
"Butades, a potter of Sicyon, was the first who invented, at Corinth, the art of modelling portraits in the earth which he used in his trade. It was through his daughter that he made the discovery, who, being deeply in love with a young man about to depart on a long journey, traced the profile of his face, as thrown upon the wall by the light of the lamp [umbram ex facie eius ad lucernam in pariete lineis circumscripsit]. Upon seeing this, her father filled in the outline, by compressing clay upon the surface, and so made a face in relief, which he then hardened by fire along with other articles of pottery."
Greek black-figure pottery painting,R. M. Cook (1976). Review of John Boardman, Athenian Black Figure Vases: A Handbook. Classical Review (New Series), 26, pp 253-253. . also known as the black-figure style or black-figure ceramic (Greek, μελανόμορφα, melanomorpha), common between the 7th and 5th centuries BCE, employs the silhouette and characteristic profile views of figures and objects on pottery forms. The pots themselves exhibit strong forms in outline that are indicators of their purpose, as well as being decorative.Trendall, A. D. (Arthur Dale Trendall) & National Gallery of Victoria (1966). Greek vases in the Felton Collection. Oxford University Press, Melbourne; New York
Profile portraits
For the depiction of portraits, the profile image has marked advantage over a full-face image in many circumstances, because it depends strongly upon the proportions and relationship of the bony structures of the face (the forehead, nose and chin) making the image clear and simple. Research at Stanford University indicated that where previous studies of face recognition have been based on frontal views, studies with silhouettes show humans are able to extract accurate information about gender and age from the silhouette alone.Science Daily, accessed November 2, 2008. This is an important concept for artists who design characters for visual media, because the silhouette is the most immediately recognisable and identifiable shape of the character.Good design lies in the foundation , accessed August 18, 2009.
For this reason, profile portraits have been employed on coinage since antiquity, with the earliest human profile portrait appearing on coins from Lycia around 500 BC. The practice of portraying rulers in profile on the currency they issued became firmly established by Alexander the Great and his successors.
The early Renaissance period saw a fashion for painted profile portraits and people such as Federico da Montefeltro and Ludovico Sforza were depicted in profile portraits.
Profile portrait techniques
A silhouette portrait can be painted or drawn. However, the traditional method of creating silhouette portraits is to cut them from lightweight black cardboard and mount them on a pale (usually white) background. This was the work of specialist artists, often working out of booths at fairs or markets, whose trade competed with that of the more expensive miniaturists patronised by the wealthy.
A traditional silhouette portrait artist would cut the likeness of a person, freehand, within a few minutes.Roving Artists Classic portraits Some modern silhouette artists also make silhouette portraits from photographs of people taken in profile.Custom Silhouette Pictures by Karl Johnson , accessed November 2, 2008. These profile images are often head and shoulder length (bust) but can also be full length.
Nineteenth-century popularity and development
The work of the physiognomist Johann Caspar Lavater, who used silhouettes to analyse facial types, is thought to have promoted the art.Lavater, accessed November 2, 2008. The 18th century silhouette artist August Edouart cut thousands of portraits in duplicate. His subjects included French and British nobility and US presidents. Much of his personal collection was lost in a shipwreck.August Edward, accessed November 2, 2008. In England, the best known silhouette artist, a painter not a cutter, was John Miers, who travelled and worked in different cities, but had a studio on the Strand in London.John Miers, accessed November 2, 2008, V&A biography He advertised "three minute sittings",brereton.org.uk, Printed advertisement on back of a miniature and the cost might be as low as half a crown around 1800. Miers' superior products could be in grisaille, with delicate highlights added in gold or yellow, and some examples might be painted on various backings, including gesso, glass or ivory. The size was normally small, with many designed to fit into a locket, but otherwise a bust some 3 to 5 inches high was typical, with half- or full-length portraits proportionately larger.
In America, silhouettes were highly popular from about 1790 to 1840.
The physionotrace apparatus invented by Frenchman Gilles-Louis Chrétien in 1783-84 facilitated the production of silhouette portraits by deploying the mechanics of the pantograph to transmit the tracing (via an eyepiece) of the subject's profile silhouette to a needle moving on an engraving plate, from which multiple portrait copies could be printed.Freund, Gisèle (1974), Photographie et société, Éditions du Seuil, p. 8-18, retrieved 18 April 2016Cromer 'Le secret du physoniotrace Bulletin de la société archéologique, historique et artistique, ´Le Vieux Papier,' 26th year, October 1925 The invention of photography signaled the end of the silhouette as a widespread form of portraiture.
Maintaining the tradition
The skill was not lost, and travelling silhouette artists continued to work at state fairs into the 20th century. E. J. Perry and Dai Vernon were artists active in Coney Island at this time as well. The popularity of the silhouette portrait is being reborn in a new generation of people who appreciate the silhouette as a nostalgic way of capturing a significant occasion.
In the United States and the UK silhouette artists have websites advertising their services at weddings and other such functions. In England there is an active group of silhouette artists.Tyneside silhouettist inspired family-success accessed February 4, 2012] In Australia, S. John Ross plied his scissors at agricultural shows for 60 years until his death in 2008.The Silhouette Man, accessed November 2, 2008. Other artists such as Douglas Carpenter produce silhouette images using pen and ink.Silhouette artist, accessed November 2, 2008.
In art, media and illustrations
Since the late 18th century, silhouette artists have also made small scenes cut from card and mounted on a contrasting background like the portraits. These pictures, known as "paper cuts", were often, but not necessarily, silhouette images. European paper cuts traditionally have differed from Asian paper cuts, which are often made of several layers of brightly coloured and patterned paper, with many formal decorative elements such as flower petals.
Among 19th century artists to work with papercutting was the author Hans Christian Andersen.Hans Christian Andersen's Paper Cuts in the Royal Library, accessed November 2, 2008. The modern artist Robert Ryan creates intricate images by this technique, sometimes using them to produce silk-screen prints.Mister Rob Ryan, accessed November 2, 2008.
In the late 19th and early 20th century several illustrators employed designs of similar appearance for making book illustrations. Silhouette pictures could easily be printed by blocks that were cheaper to produce and longer lasting than detailed black and white illustrations.