Silhouette Portrait, Mrs Helmore, by Isabella Beetham, painting on glass, ca. 1785-1809.

Silhouette portrait on glass of a woman, likely Mrs Helmore, set in a gilt frame with the trade card of Isabella Beetham on the reverse.

Presented by Captain Desmond Coke

In the 18th century cut-paper images (usually blackened) were called 'shades'. If they were portraits, they were known as 'profiles'. The fashion for 'profiles' grew in the 1770s, when the archaeological discoveries of ancient Roman sites at Herculaneum and Pompeii encouraged a taste for Neo-classicism. ‘Profiles’ became even more fashionable after about 1775, when Johann Kaspar Lavater published his hugely popular Essays on Physiognomy. He claimed that one could detect a person’s character by concentrating on his or her main features. These would reveal both virtues and vices. Lavater illustrated the book with numerous simple black profiles.

The 'silhouette' was named after a French minister who was notorious for wasting his time on this popular hobby. Commercially, it was very successful, because in its simplest form it was a cheap and quick method of portraiture. With mechanical aids, a sitting could be done in one minute. There was no need for further tedious sittings to make endless repeats of the portrait for family and friends. But both artists and clients desired novelty. This soon led artists to diversify from the original cut paper or simple painted profiles on paper. They could paint on the under-surface of flat or convex glass, using oil colour or watercolour. They then framed the glass against a plaster background. Sometimes those profiles painted on convex glass would be backed by a thin coating of wax. Artists could paint on plaster, but watercolour, ink or oil was not suitable for this. It seems that they used some kind of soot- or charcoal-based pigment. They might also use an ivory support, on which they painted in watercolour, often adding bronzed highlights. They borrowed this popular method from miniature painting.

Portrait miniatures and silhouette portraits were frequently exchanged between loved ones and family in eighteenth-century Britain as tokens of affection and remembrance. Isabella Beetham, the artist behind this silhouette portrait, remarked on one of her trade cards that her portraits could help people cope with the loss of a loved one. Silhouettes were a cheaper and faster alternative to the more expensive miniature on ivory, and their popularity was widespread.

The cutting of silhouettes, or ‘profiles’ as they were called in Britain, was a popular pastime in the eighteenth century. From the 1770s professional artists began to produce profiles as a cheap, quick form of small portraiture. Sittings took no more than five minutes and endless exact copies could easily be made from the original. Isabella Beetham (maiden name Robinson, 1753-1825) was one of the first professional silhouette cutters to become fashionable. She elaborated on the simple cut profile with various painted silhouettes – on paper, ivory, plaster and even glass. Between 1785 and 1809 Beetham had a successful business on 27 Fleet Street in London, where she made silhouettes on card and glass. She later supplied portrait miniatures as well and studied portrait painting with the miniature painter John Smart. Beetham became one of Britain’s most acclaimed silhouette and miniature artists.

P.159-1922