Shades of the Past: Silhouette Artist John Miers

Silhouette by Miers, said to be a portrait of
Margaret Ruskin

We generally associate the silhouette with an image cut out of black paper, but in the 18th and early 19th centuries, there were many other methods for producing “shades” or “profiles.” Indeed, since black paper was not commercially available until the late 1820s, many artists preferred to paint silhouettes on paper, ivory, glass, or plaster. The master of painting on plaster, and one of the most prolific and accomplished silhouette artists of the period, was John Miers.

The Alice’s collection includes one silhouette by Miers—the profile of a young woman with a fashionable short haircut. Alice T. Miner purchased this silhouette from the antique dealer T.H. Telford of Grasmere, probably during the trip she made to England in 1937. Telford identified the sitter as Margaret Ruskin, the mother of critic John Ruskin. There is some doubt about the accuracy of that identification, but it is nonetheless a charming portrait and a very fine example of Miers’s work.

An early Miers silhouette, ca. 1783-84

John Miers was born in 1758 in Leeds, England, the son of a coach painter. By 1781 he had set up his own business painting silhouettes, and between 1783 and 1788 traveled to various towns in Scotland and the north of England to offer his services. On October 26, 1784, Meirs placed this advertisement in the Manchester Mercury:

“J. MIERS Begs Leave respectfully to inform the Ladies and Gentlemen of MANCHESTER, That he has invented a new Method of taking the most exact Likenesses in Miniature Profile. He has succeeded beyond his most sanguine Expectations, in remedying the Defects with which the common uncertain Method of reducing Shades have universally been attended; and has been honoured by all who have seen his Performances, with the most flattering Encomiums, for giving the true Proportion and most animated Expression of the Features.” The cost was a “trifling” 5s. to 7s. 6d. (To put that in perspective, 5 shillings was a respectable week’s wages for a working man in the 18th century.)

A “Method of taking Profiles,”
Lady’s Monthly Museum,
October 1799

What exactly Miers’s remarkable method entailed is not recorded, but since he advertised that the sittings took only two or three minutes, it must have involved a machine of some kind. A variety of devices existed to trace profiles and then reduce them in size, generally using a pantograph. Miers boasted that his method was unique, because “in proportion as the Profiles are reduced, they invariably acquire increasing spirit and animation, a circumstance directly opposite to every other previous invention.” This made his likenesses ideal for “wearing in rings, pins, lockets, bracelets, faux montres, &c.”

In 1788, John Miers and his family (which eventually would grow to eleven children, many of whom became artists themselves) arrived in London, and in 1791 they moved to 111 Strand, which was to remain their home and place of work for many years. The Strand was the home of many fashionable shops as well as government buildings, and Miers drew his clientele from the well-to-do middle and upper classes, and even nobility and royalty, including King George III.

The label on the back of “Margaret Ruskin’s” portrait indicates that it was made during this early London period, between 1791 and 1809. After 1800 Miers produced few profiles, and most of the portraits made after that time were probably executed by his equally talented assistant, John Field (1772-1848). It is likely that the silhouette in the Alice’s collection was made by Field rather than Miers himself.

John Miers left a fortune of £20,000 upon his death in 1821, so he was obviously very successful as an artist and businessman. Miers offered his customers silhouettes in a wide range of sizes which could be adapted for various purposes. Once a likeness was made, it could be infinitely reproduced. He even offered the option of copying other artists’ silhouettes, and if one wished, having them updated by being “dress’d in the present Taste.”

A view of the Strand, ca. 1800

An excellent resource for learning more about British silhouettes (and the source of the information about John Miers in this post) is Profiles of the Past.

Likeness in Profile

Art and history can often be found in the most surprising places. For example, while driving along the interstate recently, I spotted a silhouette... we've all seen her - she may be the most commonly reproduced silhouette of our time - mud flap girl! Although this may seem to some a modern and novel way to depict a beautiful woman, this type of illustration has a long history and was once a very popular form of low-cost portraiture.

The Alice's collection holds a lovely group of thirty slightly more sophisticated silhouettes of men, women and children, collected by Alice in the early 20th century. The silhouettes are displayed together in the Sheraton Room on the second floor. They are wonderful little gems, exhibited in a wide variety of metal and wooden frames. Most are portraits of unnamed persons, but we know who a few of the people are - Benjamin Franklin, Martha Washington, John Ruskin, Aaron Burr, you may not recognize other names; Oscar Dinsmore-Davis (age 10 months and four days,) Margaret Davidson (her daughter was a poetic prodigy who died quite young,) Lucretia Platt, Alexander Potter, Eugenie (which may be the likeness of Empress Eugenie - wife of Napoleon III, and the last Empress of the French.)

Eugenie, 1870

The silhouette collection runs the gamut of the ways people were pictured - from the view of only the head, to full body profiles. One of the latter method depicts Alexander Potter and his dog. The Potter silhouette was created in 1829 by Auguste Amant Constant Fidéle Edouart (1789-1861.) Mr. Potter's and his dog's silhouettes were cut out of black paper and mounted on white paper, on which a split rail fence was lightly painted. The riding crop he holds is partly of cut paper and partly painted.

Alexander Potter by Aug. Edouart 1829 photo: PHOTOPIA/Shaun Heffernan

On the back of our Edouart silhouette is the following printed label,

"LIKENESS IN PROFILE
Executed by Mons. Edouart,

Who begs to observe, that his Likenesses are produced by the Scissors alone, and are preferable to any taken by Machines, inasmuch as by the above method, the expression of the Passions, and peculiarities of Character, are brought into action, in a style which has not hitherto been attempted by any other Artist..."

The methods used to create these images also varied widely, some were cut black silhouettes, mounted on white paper (which may be blank, or painted, or lithographed with a background scene) - some had the white paper as the cut silhouette which was then mounted on black - still others were produced by painting directly on glass, wax, plaster, or even ivory.

Auguste Edouart began cutting silhouettes in 1825 to prove an argument - he tells a story of "bustling the old father into a proper position, seizing a pair of scissors from a work basket, blacking a quickly torn piece of paper with the candle snuffers, and snipping a silhouette infinitely superior to the mechanical shade the family had been commending. It was at once approved of and found so like, that the ladies changed their teasing and ironical tone to praises, and begged me to take their mother's likeness, which I did with the same facility and exactness." Clearly Edouart was somewhat arrogant, but many others admired his work.

Auguste Edouart self portrait

Edouart was born in Dunkirk, France, fought valiantly in Napoleon's army and was decorated. He later moved to England where he traveled the country cutting portraits of British and French nobility. He came to the U.S. in 1839, just a few months before the daguerreotype made it to America, and stayed for ten years cutting silhouettes of Presidents and well-known Americans. On the return journey his ship sank and most of the folios full of copies of his thousands of silhouettes were lost. It is said that he never produced another after that ill-fated day.

Tracing the shadow of a figure thrown onto the wall was a means of portraiture employed as early as the Greek culture. This method did not receive the name "silhouette" until the 18th century, when it was named for a French finance minister who enjoyed creating likenesses made of cut paper... an inexpensive and fun method of portraiture. Other terms include; shade, scissor writing, paper profiles, paper cuts, black shades (a term Edouart hated!,) shadows, and profiles. The most famous English silhouette artist was John Miers (1756-1821.) Alice Miner also acquired a Miers silhouette of the head of a young woman created with black ink on gessoed plaster.

Head of a young woman by Miers, 19th century

Silhouettes became less prominent with the invention of the camera, rapidly losing popularity in the United States after 1840. They continued to be a type of artwork found at fairs and tourist sites for much of the 20th century, and silhouette artists can still be found today, selling their unique brand of portraiture as a more specialized and nostalgic niche item. If you might be thinking of becoming a silhouette artist, you would do well to visit The Alice and study our collection!

Tours are at 10:00, noon, and 2:00 Tuesday - Saturday.

A Room Revisited

I am interested in using this "blog" technology to highlight a few of the ongoing projects here at The Alice. There are many elements here that inherently change: the exhibits come and go, events are presented each month, and our dedication to conservation means that the collection itself undergoes transformation - I'll highlight some recent projects in that realm in another blog. However, our public may not realize that there is also the conservation of the museum building, rooms, structures... our outer shell - and this creates change in the museum appearance, and in the way each visitor experiences the museum.

Yesterday I finished hanging the artwork and placing the objects back into what we call the Sheraton Room. This is the second floor bedroom in the northwest corner, named for the style of chairs that grace the room. The Sheraton Room has been the home of our collection of silhouettes since the museum opened in 1924. If you have been here for a tour you may not have realized this fact. The silhouettes were haphazardly hung and thus gave little indication of their integrity as a wonderful collection.

The silhouette collection as it was displayed in the Sheraton Room before renovation:


In the process of examinging each room in the museum we prioritized the Sheraton Room for repair of a window seat damaged by steam. The window seat was skillfully rebuilt by Roger Bodine and Steve Fessette, afterward Steve painted the woodwork and floor of the room. Of course, everything was removed to allow for this renovation. Moving the objects back afforded the opportunity to hang the silhouette collection with care and planning.

Docent Seana Remillard was a great help during the process of hanging the silhouettes and other artwork. After plotting out where each piece would be hung we tackled the concrete and terracotta tile walls! I hope the results speak for themselves... but you must tour the museum to really experience these wonderful, diminutive works of art!

And here is the silhouette collection today: