947

Auguste Edouart
(French, active U.K., U.S., 1789-1861)

"Large Portrait Silhouette of the Families of Dr. John Clarke (1773-1846) and of Ferdinand Andrews (b. 1794)", Saratoga Springs, New York", 1840

paper cut-outs on sepia ink/wash
signed, localized and dated "Aug. 1840" lower center, frame backing with "E. Grosvenor Paine" sales label and label with information from Mrs. F. Nevill Jackson's book.
Glazed in a period bird's-eye maple frame.
sight 15-1/2" x 35-1/2", framed 21-1/2" x 41-1/2"

Provenance: Collection of Edward Grosvenor Paine (1911-1994), London, New York and New Orleans; L. F. Antique Show, 1977; Hanes & Ruskin Antiques, Old Lyme, Connecticut, 2012; Estate of Dr. Carroll Ball, Jackson, Mississippi.

Literature: Mrs. F. Nevill Jackson, Ancestors in Silhouette Cut by Auguste Edouart. New York: John Lane Co., 1921, pp. 192, 198-199.

Notes: The majority of this extraordinary collection of portrait silhouettes and miniatures was selectively culled over several decades for Dr. Ball by two of the most prominent dealers in the genre- Peggy McClard in Houston, Texas, and Hanes and Ruskin in Olde Lyme, Connecticut. Even more importantly, most of the silhouettes by Auguste Edouart offered here were from the artist’s personal collection that was salvaged from the wreckage of his ship the Oneida after it sunk off the island of Guernsey in 1849.

Auguste Edouart, a French emigre sought refuge in England following the French Revolution, where he began his career as a “hair picturist”, snipping and braiding elaborate lockets of hair into mourning portraits and art. His versatility with scissors, by happenstance, led him to silhouettes after he won a heated debate with a friend that mechanically cut silhouettes were not more effective than hand-cut ones. To prove his point, he cut a portrait with crisp precision and extraordinary likeness in under two minutes, earning him his first commission of its kind. Edouart’s silhouettes were so exact, even down to the hair-style and cut-out white of the gentlemen’s collars, Edouart rarely embellished them with chalk, gouache or gold as many less accomplished silhouettists did. Some silhouettes were on plain white card, more elaborate ones appeared on lithographic interiors; the rarest and most valuable of all were placed on fine sepia inkwash backgrounds Edouart painted in situ.

Over the next twenty-four years, he cut thousands of silhouettes in the U.K. and the U.S., earning him the reputation as one of the most accomplished silhouette artists of his time. Ten of these prolific years were spent in the U.S., capturing the physiognomy and fashion of the most important politicians, socialites and entrepreneurs of the time, including six former presidents, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Madame Jumel- whose portrait miniature, along with her ex-husband’s (Aaron Burr), is offered at sale in one of the succeeding lots. Though Edouart worked mostly in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and New York, he traveled south to Kentucky and Louisiana. When Edouart cut a silhouette, he doubled the paper, creating a copy for his own collection, which he then placed on card. On the backs of each, he typically dated and localized the work, and often wrote the sitters’ names. By the time he left America in 1849 on the ill-fated Oneida bound for England, his work filled twenty-one folios, many of which contained several hundred silhouettes. Much of his lifetime work was lost with the ship. Numerous folios were rescued, though badly damaged by water. Devastated, Edouart gave them to the Lukis family with whom he resided and convalesced after the shipwreck.

Years later in 1911, Mrs. F. Nevill (Emily) Jackson placed an advertisement in a London paper seeking silhouettes for research. The Lukis family sold her sixteen of the folios. Jackson meticulously photographed and indexed the albums, and then restored them. The removed the black paper cut-outs from the damaged cards, pressed them and placed them on new cards. Since Edouart listed the sitters’ names and dates and locations on the backs of his silhouettes, Jackson cut holes (called keyholes) in the new paper so Edouart’s descriptions could be seen. When possible, she also cut the description from the bottom of the original page/card and pasted them to the bottom of the new ones. The American folios, which comprised six of the sixteen Mrs. Jackson acquired from the Lukis family were purchased by the New York dealer Arthur S. Vernay, who broke up the folios and matted and framed them with double glass frames. Vernay sold the majority of them in a three week sale in 1913. The rest were dispersed over time.

Born in Yorkshire, England, “Doctor” John Clarke immigrated to the United States as a young child shortly after the American Revolution. An entrepreneur by nature, Clarke is credited with inventing the first soda fountain in New York City in 1819. He is, however, best known as the father of bottled spring water, and one of the pioneering developers of Saratoga Springs, New York. In 1823, he purchased the Congress Spring in Saratoga Springs, developed the Park around it, transforming the swamp into a safe and equitable public space. In 1826, Clarke partnered with fellow New York businessman Thomas Lynch to bottle and mass produce the mineral water. “Lynch and Clarke” water, which became “John Clarke” after Lynch’s death in 1833, was immensely successful with distribution throughout the United States and Europe. Clarke relocated to Saratoga Springs ca. 1828 to better oversee the company’s burgeoning production, and quickly recognized the city’s tourism potential. In addition to bottled water, he implemented the first waterworks system and co-founded the Saratoga and Schenectady Railroad in 1832. Clarke purchased extensive tracts of land throughout the town and surrounding county (much of which is now Skidmore College), and planned Circular Street, where he erected the famous Greek Revival Clarke Mansion, built by John Hodgman in 1830-1832. Clarke married Eliza Bryar White, the widow of New York attorney Charles White, in 1829. In addition to Eliza’s four children (William, Mary, Charles and Louisa), the couple had three children (Eliza, Thomas and George). Though none of the elder children are known to have married into the Putnam-Andrews family, Clarke had several business ventures with the family. Ferdinand Andrews was a grocer/publisher with ties to Saratoga Springs and Boston; he thus likely supplied and marketed the bottle mineral water. Clarke would have been more directly engaged with the family of Andrews’ wife- Nancy Putnam. The Putnams (Nancy’s father Gideon and brother Rockwell) were among the first developers of the Saratoga Springs. They designed the city around the three springs, and “tubed” them for public use; they built Congress Hall Hotel, and they jointly invested in the springs and railroad with Clarke. Individual silhouette portraits of John Clarke and Ferdinand Andrews are conserved at the Metropolitan Museum. Portraits of Clarke/White and Andrews family are listed in Mrs. F. Nevill Jackson’s index of Edouart’s work, even though she did not register/indicate, which were group portraits. In addition to this silhouette, with the parlor depicted in the background, at least one other Clarke family portrait with a sepia/inkwash background of a drawing room in Circular Mansion, was cut by Auguste Edouart in 1840, and sold for $18,960 at James D. Julia Auction, August 24-26, 2016, as lot 2160.


  • Condition: **In generally good condition with overall toning of paper and a few scattered areas of foxing. Visible central vertical crease. Scattered creasing; seated woman at right with corresponding lifting of paper; top of head of woman standing at right. Old repairs: dress and foot of woman standing at left; bottom half of coat, top of head, and feet of man standing at right; neck of figure at left; possible repair to top of head of woman standing at right. Some abrading and slight losses to paper including in figure of man with cane at left; standing woman at right; standing man at right. Likely innate circular mark at cushion at left. All consistent with age and material.

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