55th Annual Delaware Show

In Fine Form: The Striking Silhouette By Emily Guthrie If there is a visual strategy that has been consistently and successfully employed by the fine and decorative arts, graphic design, fashion, theater, and even the built environment, it is the silhouette (fig. 1) . At its essence, the silhouette is an artistic interpretation of a shadow of a person or thing, characterized by a strong outline set in sharp contrast to its background. Within the sphere of American antiques, upon hearing the word silhouette , our minds might immediately leap to the charming portraits of sitters in black profile against a white backdrop or the unmistakable form of a Native American, bow drawn, whose strength and vigilance in his permanent post as a weathervane are legible even from a great distance. It is this very ease of legibility, combined with a precision of form, that makes the silhouette so effective in a wide variety of applications, from portraits and weathervanes to brooches and shop signs (fig. 2). Fig. 1. Silhouette of men eating frogs! From Barbara Anne Townshend, Introduction to the Art of Cutting Groups of Figures, Flowers, Birds, &c. in Black Paper (London: Printed for Edward Orme, [1815−16]). Winterthur Library RBR NC910 T75 F Fig. 2. Shoemaker shop sign, 1790−1825. Sheet metal. Bequest of Henry Francis du Pont 1959.1802 — 28 —