ffitu /

Backtn B v P arntctl S H acxgl roP o

te you wonderingif silhouettesare oh-

BlacK
A
F\so-over? So last year?Hardly.Theyare
not evenso last century.ln fact,you haveto
go back well over 200 yearsto uncoverthe
b e g i n n i n g so f t h i s l a s t i n g c r a f t a n d , s o m e
b e l i e v e ,a r t f o r m O r i g l n a t i n gi n F r a n c e 's l l -

s
Collectibleblack-and-white silhouette
add a graphtcpunchto ary room
houetteswere an engagingway to capture
s o m e o n e 's l i k e n e s s w i t h o u t t h e e x p e n s e
or wait-time of a portrait The quality of
the work ranged from hobby-by itinerant
workers-to highly detailed and respected
a r t f o r m s .A s w i t h s o m u c h o f F r e n c hc h i c ,
the crazefor silhouettecutting soon spread'
and artists began to move into other parts

Clockwisefro m left: tgth-centurgcut,

poste ond sfifchgentlemonwith hat' Two
circo r83o ho/low-cufond pen-highlighted
womenwifh comb in bross t'rames Earlg
tgth-centurghollow-cufof silk mon ond
woman.A[l at Elvo Needles.

P uoros B Y A A R o N Lrtv x ueuLs P

60 K \ \ s \ s ( , l' l' \s l' \( ,| " s
o f Europeand even tua llyth e Unit edSt at es ,
whereit was cornnronfor artists to travelto
p o l rularreso rt lo ca lion s to m ak e l) or lr dr t s
o f t h e t ourists.
While the hu ge d ema nd f or s ilhou-
e t t e s declined with th e in v ent ion of t he
ype. tlre first l)o t)ularr nelhod o[
d a guerreol
p h otogralrhy, tod ay th eir ap peal r em ains
s t r ong. "l c an t kee p th em in, " r epor t s
h on ,who h asa bo ot h at M is s ion
E l i zabet Ols
R o a clA ntique Mall "For th e las t t hr ee t o
f o u r years s ilho ue ttes h ave been s o lr ot .
H i gh-qualitymid -lalh -ce nlu r y piet es ar e
d e finitelyin d ern an d Tlrere was a r enais -
s a nceof silh ou ette sin the 1 950sbut t hes e
do not reallyappealto collectors,"
she saysof is cut fronr wl-ritepaper.Then the negative i r n a p ei . c r i l f r o r l r a n i e c e o f b l a ck- co a te d
t l r er ' iececslrc llrvs o lten i1 1t] r e Nor t heas t . ir nage t lr e 1' lr u l i l ei l s e l l , i s c u l o u l F i r r a l l l l ) d l r e r <r n d f l r e n D a s l e d o n u l r i le l r a l r e r
Local dea ler Elva Nee dles r t r ajor s in t lr e r em air r ingp i e c e ,t h e o u t l i n e , i s b a c k e d H i s t o r i c a l l yt,h e s e w e r e s o n l e t i m e se r n b e l -
s i l houet t es,too : She ha s ex am ples of all wit lr bl. r c kl) al) e rc r e d l i n ga g r a l , l r i ce l f e c t l i s h e d a f t e r t h e c u t - a n d - p a s t eH a i r cu r l s,
t h r ee f ornrs on d isp lay Fir s t , and leas t M uc lr m or e e x 1 . l e c t e d . r r e N e e d l e s l a c e a n d o t h e r d e t a r l s r n i g h t h a ve b e e n
f a miliaris the ho llow-cutsilh ouet t e,whic h ex dr nl) lesof eu t - o r r ls i l l r o u elte s w l r e r et l r e a d d e dt t ' e r t h a n c el h e i t n a g e .l T s o t neca se s.
L,;/tfi;^ft;;,t
the clothing might even have been painted
in color, or the artist might have added
bronzingto createshadowingon the silhou-
ette itself.
The third type of silhouette is simply
painted.For both cut-out silhouettesand
painted ones, some artists relied only on
their good eye and created the images by
sight.Otherschose to use a clevercontrap-
tion called a pantograph:Clients sat in a
c hair and th e artist used a light t o c as t a
shadowon the wall. After tracing the pro-
file, the artist would use the pantograph
to reducethe image to any size the sitter
chose.
Elva Needles has sold to quite a few
collectorsover the years and believesthat
silhouettesare popular not only becauseof
their timeless black-and-whiteformat, but
also becausethey work so well all over a
 L.;,tu@;^ft;/,1
!/

"I haveto linrit

r/- I -
mvsell somenow
vY ll

so now I onlY DUY

.1I
t l ../ ,I
u,

sllhouettes that I'l

resemDle Or
remind me
t- t - ' I lD
oI Inends !
-Bruce Bttrstert
h ouse." l haveon e clie nt wh o has a num ber
of firepla ce stn he r lrou se - f iv e at leas t -
and she has silh ou elte sha ngingall ar ound
the mantels.They are such a good size for
"
everyroom from living room to bathroom
We ha rdlY ne ed to m ent ion- bul we
w ill-thal a lo ve lypa ir o f s ilhouet t eswould
m akethe p erle ctg ift lo r a ny Valent ineI