M187n: Gentleman about to enter an Assembly

Figure cut out of black paper and mounted on card with background painted in brown with white highlights. Figure of a gentleman in profile, standing whole-length in evening dress: tail coat, high collar, short curling hair, knee breeches, laced pumps, holding chapeau-bras with tassels. Pasted to paper with foreground pillar, interior of a ballroom with elegant figures in the distance, two chandeliers.

In a modern mount of black card with gold sight edge.

From 1994 catalogue of miniatures:

"This is one of Edouart's best silhouettes. The hesitation of the gentleman about to enter the room is brilliantly conveyed."

Augustin Armant Constance Fidele Edouart (1789-1861) was born in Dunkirk, but came to England in 1813 or 1814. From 1825 he painted as a silhouettist. He worked in various places, including Bath (1825 and 1827) and Cambridge. From 1839-49 he was in the United States. He executed a number of duplicates of some of his silhouettes.

One of a group of 24 silhouettes by Edouart (M187.a to M187.w). It has been cut out of black paper, which seems to be ordinary white paper painted black. The background may have been painted by an assistant. Edouart sometimes signed his work with a stencil rather than by hand, as in this example. Edouart was in Bath during February 1836 and again in September 1826 to may 1827, staying at "Mr. Price's, 14, Old Bond Street." In 1829, when this example was made, he was mostly in London, with no evidence of a visit to Bath. (McKechnie, Sue, British Silhouette Artists and their Work 1760-1860, London, 1978, pp. 205-6)