Something About Silhouettes

They used to be called "shades," and sometimes "profiles," "likenesses," or "shadow pictures." But the familiar black-and-white images we know as silhouettes would, by any name, be just as compelling. When they first appeared in the late 1600s, paper-cut profiles offered a viable alternative to traditional painted portraits. So for a small cost in money and time (adept profilists could scissor a likeness in minutes), the sitter could immortalize his or her self for posterity. Or at least for the friend, sweetheart, or relative to whom silhouettes were often given as mementos.

As Country Living decorating editor Tisha Leung observes, "They're so simple, yet so detailed. You'll see a hairstyle, a collar, or in full-figure portraits, deftly described clothing that tells us the era in which the subject lived. And I think that human connection always remains fresh for us."

On the graph chart of history, the silhouette's steady attraction has enjoyed its occasional peaks — and one of those times is now. From home design to stationery to personal adornments, a creative new generation of designers is adapting the silhouette idiom to 21st-century products. And as you're about to see, not a whit of the old charm's been lost in translation.

The newest wallpapers tweak tradition with modern wit. For maximum impact, use bolder patterns in smaller spaces (such as a powder room) or to punctuate a single wall.

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."

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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.

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When Frenchman Gilles-Louis Chrétien invented a profile-tracing device called the physionotrace, throngs of eager amateurs began outlining silhouettes by mechanical means.

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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.

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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.

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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.

An entire cast of vertical silhouettes dramatizes a landing window. Side-framed with ribbon-hung portraits, the image-print draperies are parted to spotlight a sculpture in profile.

As demonstrated by this eye-catching cluster of cameos from three talented designers, the grouping-for-drama principle also applies to jewelry. These custom-order pieces include Candace Ang's chunky-chained, ivory-look cameo; Geri Roucaute's gleaming metal profile pendant; and Brenda Weber's found-objects necklace that incorporates a painted doorknob flange and (circling its central portrait) a salvaged typewriter key.

The simplicity of silhouettes makes for compatibility and versatility in displays. Meaning: Collections of antique and modern mingle well in all sorts of treatments.

Iron a pretty profile onto a crisp pants cuff.

Add distinction to an upholstered chair.

And for the table, there's a full menu of china plates, teapots, and cups, of which the wares by Barbara Barry (wedgwoodusa.com) and Rosenthal (800-804-8070) are just a sample.

Stationery offers astonishing assortments of silhouettes — on writing paper, notecards, bookmarks, calling cards, and more. Try Paper Relics; paperrelics.com.