What is Silhouette Art and its history

Silhouette Art

What is Silhouette art?

Silhouette art is basically the art of drawing the outlines of a person filled in with black color on a white background. Etienne de Silhouette developed this technique and it was used in many places before the invention of photography.

The History of Silhouettes

This art originated in Europe some 300 hundred years ago. At that time silhouettists were hired as an
amusement for the royal class. The Finance Minister of France, Etienne de Silhouette, was interested in his hobby of cutting out paper profiles. Etienne de Silhouette also ordered people of France to wear clothes like a silhouette. The people of France were originally against it but after some time they realized the importance of this art and started admiring it. The golden era of this art started in the 18th century.
Numerous European silhouettists immigrated to the New World (America) and they became very popular there.

Some of them traveled to small towns to capture the profiles of ‘ordinary folk’.  Silhouettes have become one of the most collectable art forms but unfortunately there are only a handful of true silhouette artists otherwise known as paper cutters left. Tragically, the modern world is probably seeing the last age of true non-commercialized silhouette art in its purest form.

Steps to draw a Silhouette

• Position your light source on your subject as it casts shadow on the wall.
• Insist your subject to sit still as any type of movement may deviate your attention from your work.
• Now by using a soft pencil, trace the outline of your subject carefully.
• After completing the tracing work, remove the paper from the wall and erase any stray marks.
• Now fill the tracing with black color.
• Now you can cut out the paper to complete your portrait.

Note: Pay attention to your work and try to be as perfect as you can in each department, especially in tracing the outline as it is the base of your silhouette.

This is a simple method to draw a Silhouette. Silhouette can also be drawn by using photography.

Some famous silhouette artists:

Silhouette has been a very interesting art of all time and many great people are famous for their Silhouette art works. One of them is A.H Harrison. He was one of the finest Silhouette artists. He worked as a Silhouette artist in US in early 1990’s and died at St Louis. His portraits are still very famous all around the world and many people have got collections of his Silhouette portraits.

Alison Russell is one of the few remaining silhouette artists in England. She has mastered this art and is famous for making silhouette arts by using scissors and papers and completing her work in very quick time.

John Meirs is known as the most famous silhouette artist of all time. Meirs painted profile of a lady in an oval frame. John Field worked with Meirs for some time and was a fine silhouette artist. He painted portrait of an officer.

Cindi Rose is a famous silhouette artist and is currently considered the best silhouette artist in the world today.  She also holds the record for the fastest cutting of silhouette portraits from real people, which was recorded by the Guinness Book of World Records.

Also, Cindi Rose did 144 silhouettes in one hour timed by the San Antonio Express News.  Cindi Rose has been honored for her great volunteerism, often from donating silhouettes and some of these awards and honors are “Women of Distinction, Human Rights Award, President’s Humanities award, Spirit of Giving, Susan B. Komen, American Diabetes Guiding Light Award, Citizens for Animal Protection, Asia American Family Service Golden Harvest Award. . . Cindi is the a  “hero” for her un ending volunteerism, and is the only silhouette artist that has ever made a difference in the world with her Cindi Rose Silhouettes by donating them to many causes. She and her daughter, reality star, Erica Rose, even placed first on the TV show, “The Great Raise” for raising the most money for the Food Bank, and Casa de Esperanza. Cindi cut silhouettes and donated all profits to that, as well as Orchestra X, various schools, and the Moore’s School of Music.

Silhouettes of President Franklin D. Roosevelt

Silhouette Art

Etienne de Silhouette developed this art of drawing the outline of a person.  This technique was used almost everywhere all over the globe before the invention of photography.  After the invention of photography in the mid to late 19^th century, the art lost its popularity greatly for a brief time period as photography captured an exact replicated image of the subject and was very amusing.  It was not until the century had turned before people had turned an eye back to the then vintage of art of silhouettes.  Through generations of papercutters, passing on tradition to their kin was this incredible art able to survive.  Such as now in the beginning of the 21^st century has Cindi Rose, a third generation paper cutter (another word for silhouette artist), continues to preserve the marvelous art for organizations to charities and even yourself if you want a genuine Cindi Harwood Rose portrait.

Silhouette of a famous person

As we all know that role of a popular person is very crucial in the popularity of the art.  One of the most famous persons to use the silhouette art was Franklin D. Roosevelt.  He was the 32^nd president of the Unites States of America.  Nicknamed FDR, born on the 30^th day of January in the year 1882; FDR was quite a memorable president who greatly helped the country prosper  and held great interest in the art of silhouettes until his death 1945.

Cindi Harwood Rose is a famous silhouette artist.  Cindi Harwood’s father was an attorney for Franklin A. Roosevelt in Washington DC, around 1944 or 1945.  Although Cindi had not been born, she always admired the photos her father had of himself with FDR.  Years later, most likely in the 70’s, Cindi Harwood (now Rose) did this more accurate silhouette of the President.  You can see it captures a greater likness.  His hair is not as curly, and his attire is accurate to his era.  Silhouette artist, Cindi Rose, is considered the most accurate silhouette artist of all history, next to Augustin Edourt, to capture style of a decade.  Oddly, she married Franklin  Rose, MD, whose last name may have been Roosevelt, before his family shortened the name.

There are many silhouettes portraits of Roosevelt:

Description:

This silhouette profile is of Franklin D. Roosevelt done by silhouette artist Cindi Rose.  Pay attention to the refined details of the slight curls in the president’s hair, his glasses and the fine cuts of detail where his tie lies.

Description

This profile layout is of Franklin D. Roosevelt.  He is holding up a mic in his hand, maybe giving a speech on any event.  In this portrait, the background is simple and clear with white color filled in it and all the other things have black color filled in them.  The boundary of the portrait is circular.

Description

The above portrait is also of Franklin D. Roosevelt.  As you can see, the portrait is full of colors except the middle part.  The middle part of the portrait is considered the main part of the portrait.  The boundaries display flowers and there is a snapshot of an eagle as well, below the snapshot of the eagle, some information is given for the readers.  He is also seen wearing spectacles in the portrait.

Description

This form of silhouette art looks very interesting.  Who says that the young generation is not showing interest towards this old art?  Look at the boy in this picture.  He is actually having a portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt on his T-shirt.  In these cases, the portrait of a person is embedded on clothes like on T-shirts as shown in the above picture.  The silhouette is simple with black background and white colors filled in the main portion of the portrait.

Now, we have seen that this art is still quite famous and is used by some immensely popular customers.  Hopefully people will catch on to silhouettes as it can be seen trending again with images of the well-respected past president.

Welcome to Artsy Silhouettes

Artsy – noun, definition – skill creativity;

synonyms : artfulness, abstraction, carving, shaping, and symbolization

Silhouettes :

A silhouette art is the designed outline profile of a person (usually their profile) on a white background filled in with black color, though other colors may be used as well including the inverse of what was described.  This art form looks easy and simple but it is not quite as easy as it sound.  Astounding perfection is required for the designing of the layout and cutting.