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 portraits.
Jane Anderson; Esther Ainslie; Helena Anderson; Mrs Arkley; Charles Atherton (National Portrait Gallery, London)
Cut Silhouette of Four Full Figures, 19th century (Brooklyn Museum)
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 silhouette is usually presented on a light background, usually white, or none at all. The silhouette differs from an outline, which depicts the edge of an object in a linear form, while a silhouette appears as a solid shape. Silhouette images may be created in any visual artistic medium, but were first used to describe pieces of cut paper, which were then stuck to a backing in a contrasting colour, and often framed.
A traditional silhouette portrait of the late 18th century
Goethe facing a grave monument, cut paper, 1780
Corinthian black-figure pyxis, 6th century BCE
Attic Greek black-figure Panathenaic prize amphora attributed to the Euphiletos Painter, ca. 530 BCE
