Silhouettes - Spaces

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te you wonderingif silhouettesare oh-

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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.

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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 ilhoue 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 "l s t r ong. c an t kee p th em in, " r epor t s E l i zabet Ols h on ,who h asa bo ot h at M is s ion 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 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
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 -

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,

she saysof do not reallyappealto collectors,"

s i l houet t es,too : She ha s ex am ples of all 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

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

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 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.

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the clothing might even have been painted in color, or the artist might have added bronzingto createshadowingon the silhouette 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 clevercontraption 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 profile, 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

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"I haveto linrit r/I mvsell somenow vY ll

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sllhouettes that I'l

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-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