The History of Silhouettes is a richly researched, warmly personal tribute to black profile portraiture, a neglected art that the author treats as both social relic and living beauty. Beginning with family treasures, collectors, museums, and rare examples, it sets out to recover the story of a craft whose older techniques have nearly vanished, inviting readers to rediscover the charm of shadow portraits. The book traces silhouettes from ancient civilizations and legendary origins through fashionable Europe and America, where they appeared in courts, salons, schools, fairs, and street entertainments. It explores their many forms—cut paper, tracing, shadowgraphy, painting, glass, ivory, and plaster—while following the rise of amateurs, manuals, mechanical aids, and professional makers such as Miers, John Field, Mrs. Beetham, Charles, Gapp, Haines, Atkinson, and August Edouart. Along the way, it weaves in satire, poetry, physiognomy, and neoclassical taste, showing how these modest profiles could amuse, flatter, scandalize, and reveal character. Both historical record and haunting likeness, silhouettes emerge here as democratic portraits of vanished lives. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.

À propos de l'auteur

Jackson, Emily

Emily Jackson was a thoughtful and widely admired writer whose work combined curiosity, scholarship, and a deep appreciation for the overlooked details of everyday life. Born into an era that valued both learning and social refinement, she built a career shaped by careful observation and a gift for making cultural history feel vivid and accessible. Her writing earned lasting respect for its elegance and intelligence, especially in studies that traced how art, fashion, and visual culture reveal the values of their time. Rather than treating history as a dry record of facts, Jackson explored the human stories behind changing tastes, social customs, and artistic forms, showing how small objects and images can illuminate larger worlds. Her work remains relevant today because it reminds readers that culture is not only found in grand events, but also in the intimate symbols people create to define identity, memory, and beauty. Jackson’s legacy lies in her ability to bridge scholarship and pleasure, offering writing that is both informative and quietly enchanting. Readers who enjoy cultural history, visual art, and beautifully crafted nonfiction will find her especially rewarding.