Silhouette: The Art of the Shadow

The art form of silhouette has always been with us, and shows no signs of going away, as Emma Rutherford demonstrates in "Silhouette: The Art of the Shadow." During the period when it was all the rage—the late 18th and 19th centuries—the subject would sit in front of a candle and their reflected image would appear on paper affixed to a wall. Originally, the likenesses would be traced and inked in, but before long they would be cut out, and the two methods would be combined. It was a way to get a detailed and accurate likeness of a person that was much quicker and much less expensive than a painted portrait. However, in the first chapter of her book, Rutherford traces the art form back to the ancient Greeks and shows how they used a variety of methods and media to illustrate myths, fashion, and prominent figures. Throughout time, the human figure has always been the most important thing in a silhouette—and, indeed, bust portraits were usually the most popular—but during their heyday, artists paid much attention to the details of costume and often set the sitters within scenes, adding details such as furniture later. Silhouettes also became more than pretty portraits to hang on the wall. Her second chapter is titled "Soot and Beer." The kneejerk reaction to such a title might be to think that the popularity of silhouettes led to their decline, but the reality is the opposite. The popularity actually led to new experiments with materials—including soot and beer—to make the images more permanent and refined, and put to new uses, such as jewelry. Rutherford’s third chapter uses silhouettes to examine social life in Great Britain—how the low cost of production and the domesticity of the method and subject matter allowed women to enter the art world, for example—and her fourth chapter explores silhouettes in America, again, not just as an art form, but as a social force in itself. But while there are no longer silhouette studios on every main street, the art form is still alive and important. Artist Kara Walker was the youngest winner ever of the MacArthur "genius prize" in 1997, at least partly on the strength of the silhouette installations she created, and still creates, depicting pre-Civil War African American life. "Silhouette: The Art of the Shadow" covers all of this, with 264 illustrations. One critic called it ".a prolific annotated album of this artform with limited text. Yet, the text provides a sufficient historical context that more than adequately complements the numerous illustrations….[It is] a handsome reference for those who admire, collect and practice the art of shadow profiles." Our copy is new, and still in the publishers shrink wrap. It is a Rizzoli publication, and all their books are known for their high standards of design and production. Rizzoli started publishing books (as opposed to magazines) in 1974 but the parent company has been restructured and taken over many times since then, with the various companies that have resulted ending up with changed names. We are going with the publisher’s name found in the Library of Congress catalog entry for this title the year it was published, 2009, which is simply "Rizzoli." 253 pages; 30 cm. Photos are forthcoming, or available immediately on request. …