CIRCA 1650
Says silhouette expert Peggy McClard, "It started as an entertainment at social gatherings where someone with artistic talent (usually a young woman) would cut 'shades' of her fellow guests, who'd keep them as souvenirs."
CIRCA 1776
In 1771, 12-year-old Sarah De Hart crafted the first of many amazingly realistic hollow-cut silhouettes — including her famous 1783 portrait of General George Washington.
CIRCA 1785
When Frenchman Gilles-Louis Chrétien invented a profile-tracing device called the physionotrace, throngs of eager amateurs began outlining silhouettes by mechanical means.
CIRCA 1835
In 1835, the term silhouette entered the French dictionary. According to some, it was the mid-18th-century French finance minister Etienne de Silhouette's relentless taxation of nobles that led to the public's sardonic use of silhouette to mean "cheap." Thus, its application to the simple outline pictures that bear his name to this day.
CIRCA 1845
During his 10-year sojourn in the United States, renowned European silhouettist Augustin Edouart created some 50,000 full-figure images that faithfully captured subjects through their demeanor, clothing, and personal effects, such as canes and spectacles.
CIRCA 1925
When serious collectors began focusing on early- to mid-19th-century silhouettes in the 1920s and '30s, the resulting revival spurred companies like Borghese and Foster Bros. to issue a number of quality reproductions. By now these time-aged pieces can easily be mistaken for the originals that inspired them.
CIRCA 2007
In 2007, the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum in Williamsburg devoted a special exhibit to American folk art silhouettes.