Auguste Amant Constant Fidèle Edouart (1789–1861) was a French-born portrait artist who worked in England, Scotland and the United States in the 19th century. He specialised in

silhouette A silhouette (, ) is the image of a person, animal, object or scene represented as a solid shape of a single colour, usually black, with its edges matching the outline of the subject. The interior of a silhouette is featureless, and the silhouett ...

portraits.

Biography

Born in

Dunkerque Dunkirk ( ; ; ; Picard language, Picard: ''Dunkèke''; ; or ) is a major port city in the Departments of France, department of Nord (French department), Nord in northern France. It lies from the Belgium, Belgian border. It has the third-larg ...

, he left France in 1814, and established himself in London, where he began his career making portraits from hair. In 1825, he began work as a silhouette portraitist, taking full-length likenesses in profile by cutting out black paper with scissors. Edouart spent fifteen years touring England and in 1829 arrived in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

. He remained there for three years, during which time he produced some 5,000 likenesses. Edouart travelled in the United States in about 1839–49, visiting

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

and other locales. He later returned to France, where he worked on smaller silhouettes. They included one of the most notable writers of this period,

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo, vicomte Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romanticism, Romantic author, poet, essayist, playwright, journalist, human rights activist and politician. His most famous works are the novels ''The Hunchbac ...

Portraits

Edouart created portraits of hundreds of subjects, including: *Samuel Appleton and familyHistoric New England
Retrieved 2010-09-05 *

Fanny Brawne Frances "Fanny" Brawne Lindon (9 August 1800 – 4 December 1865) is best known as the fiancée and muse to English Romantic poet John Keats. As Fanny Brawne, she met Keats, who was her neighbour in Hampstead, at the beginning of h ...

*Captain Edward BoltonMuseum of Fine Arts Boston collections
Retrieved 2010-09-05 *William Buckland, Frank Buckland *Charles Burroughs *

Henry Clay Henry Clay (April 12, 1777June 29, 1852) was an American lawyer and statesman who represented Kentucky in both the United States Senate, U.S. Senate and United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives. He was the seventh Spea ...

*John Connell and family *

Susan Edmonstone Ferrier Susan Edmonstone Ferrier (7 September 1782 – 5 November 1854) was a List of Scottish novelists, Scottish novelist. Her novels, giving vivid accounts of Scottish life and presenting sharp views on women's education, remained popular throughout ...

National Galleries Scotland
. Retrieved 2010-09-05 *Samuel Freeman *

Samuel Griswold Goodrich Samuel Griswold Goodrich (August 19, 1793 – May 9, 1860), better known by his pseudonym Peter Parley, was an American author and politician who established the children's magazine ''Merry's Museum''. He was a Massachusetts Senate, Massachuse ...

Sarah Josepha Hale Sarah Josepha Buell Hale (October 24, 1788April 30, 1879) was an American writer, activist, and editor of the most widely circulated magazine in the period before the American Civil War, Civil War, ''Godey's Lady's Book''. She was the author of t ...

*Thaddeus Mason Harris *

Josiah Harlan Josiah Harlan, Prince of Ghor (June 12, 1799 – October 1871) was an American adventurer who travelled to Afghanistan and Punjab with the intention of making himself a king. During his travels, he became involved in local politics and factio ...

*Robert Knox *

Francis Lieber Francis Lieber (18 March 1798 – 2 October 1872) was a German-American jurist and political philosopher. He is best known for the Lieber Code, the first codification of the customary law and the laws of war for battlefield conduct, which serve ...

*Liston, comedian *

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include the poems " Paul Revere's Ride", '' The Song of Hiawatha'', and '' Evangeline''. He was the first American to comp ...

*John Loudoun McAdam *John Moss (see American Collector Magazine September 1943) *Stephen Olin *

Theophilus Parsons Theophilus Parsons (February 24, 1750October 30, 1813) was an American jurist based in Massachusetts. Biography Born in Newbury, Massachusetts, to a clergyman father, Parsons was one of the early students at the Dummer Academy (now The Governo ...

Samuel Jarvis Peters Samuel Jarvis Peters (July 180111 August 1855) was an American businessman and education activist. He is notable for his support of public education in New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nickna ...

Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European literature, European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'' (18 ...

Daniel Webster Daniel Webster (January 18, 1782 – October 24, 1852) was an American lawyer and statesman who represented New Hampshire and Massachusetts in the U.S. Congress and served as the 14th and 19th United States Secretary of State, U.S. secretary o ...

Image gallery

Image:Jane Anderson; Esther Ainslie; Helena Anderson; Mrs Arkley; Charles Atherton by Augustin Edouart.jpg, Jane Anderson; Esther Ainslie; Helena Anderson; Mrs Arkley; Charles Atherton (National Portrait Gallery, London) Image:Brooklyn Museum - Cut Silhouette of Four Full Figures - August Edouart.jpg, Cut Silhouette of Four Full Figures, 19th century (Brooklyn Museum) Image:ColinGibb CharlesGibb byAugustEdouart BrooklynMuseum.png, Colin Gibb and Charles Gibb, 19th century (Brooklyn Museum) Image:HWLongfellow byAugustEdouart Boston.png, H.W. Longfellow, 19th century Image:AbbottLawrence ParkSt Boston byAugustEdouart 19thc.png,

Abbott Lawrence Abbott Lawrence (December 16, 1792, Groton, Massachusetts – August 18, 1855) was an American businessman, politician, and philanthropist. He was among the group of industrialists that founded a settlement on the Merrimack River that would lat ...

and family, no.5 Park St., Boston, 19th century

Collections

Works by Edouart reside in the collections of the

National Portrait Gallery, London The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is an art gallery in London that houses a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. When it opened in 1856, it was arguably the first national public gallery in the world th ...

;

National Galleries of Scotland The National Galleries of Scotland (, sometimes also known as National Galleries Scotland) is the executive non-departmental public body that controls the three national galleries of Scotland and two partner galleries, forming one of the Nation ...

;

Crawford Art Gallery The Crawford Art Gallery () is a public Art museum, art gallery and museum in the city of Cork (city), Cork, Ireland. Known informally as the Crawford, it was designated a 'National Cultural Institution' in 2006. It is "dedicated to the visual ar ...

, Cork; New York Historical Society;NY Historical Society
. Retrieved 2010-09-05 Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Historic New England; and the

American Jewish Historical Society The American Jewish Historical Society (AJHS) was founded in 1892 with the mission to foster awareness and appreciation of American Jewish history and to serve as a national scholarly resource for research through the collection, preservation an ...

, New York.

Exhibitions

''The Art of the Silhouette in 19th-century Cork''
which included works by Edouart, Stephen O’Driscoll (c.1825-1895), and miniature portraits of members of the Crawford Family, was held at

Cork "Cork" or "CORK" may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Stopper (plug), or "cork", a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container *** Wine cork an item to seal or reseal wine Places Ireland * ...

in 2015. "Black Out: Silhouettes Then and Now", which included works by Edouart, Moses Williams, and others, held at the National Portrait Gallery, Washington D.C. May 31, 2018 to March 10, 2019, and the Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham AL, September 28, 2019 to January 12, 2020.

References

External links

*WorldCat
Edouart, Augustin-Amant-Constant-Fidèle 1789-1861
*Smithsonian
Auguste Edouart Self-Portrait
1843 *Flickr
Portrait
by Edouart of Sarah Josepha Buell Hale (1788–1879) *Library of Congress
Silhouette
profile of artist Charles Fenderich, by Edouart *Flickr
Work
by Edouart *Flickr
Silhouette in clasp of velvet choker
*

22 silhouettes
by Edouart {{DEFAULTSORT:Edouart, Augustin-Amant-Constant-Fidele 1789 births 1861 deaths American portrait painters French portrait painters Immigrants to the United States People from Dunkirk Silhouettists French emigrants Immigrants to the United Kingdom