WHEN PEOPLE ASK when silhouettes were most popular I usually answer “think Jane Austen”. It conjures up the right period! So it seems appropriate that this Xmas season, as we celebrate her 250th birthday (she was born on 16th December 1775), has been so dominated by her presence.
A Request from One Aldwych
It began for me in September, when One Aldwych asked me to help design their Christmas decorations. As one of their cultural curators I’m used to odd requests of this nature. Their idea was to cover their Christmas trees, and other areas of the hotel, with silhouettes of characters from Jane Austen’s novels.
What did Jane Austen look like?
I enthusiastically accepted the challenge, and then stopped to ask which characters, and what they looked like?
Jane Austen herself clearly had to be in the list. Finding her likeness is today relatively easy. Although there are few pictures of her, those that exist enabled the artist Melissa Dring to draw a convincing forensic portrait of her, from which this waxwork sculpture of her was made in 2014, now on display at the Jane Austen Centre in Bath. I found cutting a silhouette from a waxwork to be relatively easy, but her characters are another matter.
Being character in novels, who is to say what they actually looked like? We all create our own images of them as we read their stories, but nobody really knows. It occurred to me I could just make up a series of characters in period costume; yet, oddly, I’ve never been very good at simply making up a face. I always prefer to have something to work from. My solution was to search images of actors who have played their role in various film and theatre productions over the years and make silhouettes of them.
Using Silhouettes on a Christmas Tree
We eventually settled on a cast of eight characters. Together with Jane Austen this made nine different portraits to cut. One Aldwych needed 110 silhouettes in all, so I cut around 12 copies of each, all at different scales and with slightly different detailing so no two would be exactly the same. Some faced right, others left, and to some I added extra details in pencil: a technique called embellishment which was very popular in the Regency period. They were then all mounted on white oval cards to fit the range of oval frames assembled by One Aldwych for the task.
The silhouettes were delivered in October and the decorations were put up overnight on Saturday 8th November. I was present the following morning, as were a number of press who had been invited to witness the occasion. They all received their own silhouette of course, and were invited to sample the first of a series of brunches taking place at the hotel between now and Christmas. Before that that, we all went on a walk around Covent Garden, led by another of the One Aldwych cultural curators, Dr Matthew Green.
Top row: Elizabeth Bennett, George Wickham, Catherine de Bourgh, and Charles Bingley
Bottom row: William Collins, Fanny Price, Mr Darcy, and Mrs Bennet
I’ll be attending a few more of their Sunday Style Brunches over the next few weeks, while the decorations are still in place, to cut silhouettes of the guests. Dates so far confirmed include 23rd November (later today), 7th and 21st December. For me, it’s the ideal gig! Guests immediately make the connection with the Xmas-tree silhouettes and ask if I had a hand in making them. If you’re in London on any of these Sundays, why not have brunch at the hotel? It would be great to see you and one of my silhouettes is part of the deal. See you there?
The Austens at Oxford Dinner
Hot on the heels of this Xmas-tree commission was request to cut silhouettes at on “Austens at Oxford” dinner in St John’s College in December. It seems Jane Austen’s father was a fellow at the college. They have in their own collection a pair of silhouettes of her parents, which they’ve sent me so I can include them on the cover of the silhouette wallets. Seeing them, it immediately became apparent that Melissa Dring was correct to give her waxwork of Jane Austen such a prominent nose!
What to do with the Silhouettes?
The Christmas display of silhouettes will be on display at One Aldwych until the end of the season in January. What will happen to them then? I mentioned to the hotel that they might auction them all off to raise funds for a charity. Certainly, it seems a shame to simply dispose them.
Do you have any ideas what to do with them? If so, let me know your thoughts below.
It’s fascinating to see how you take a theme and develop it. The Jane Austen Centre in Bath would be a fitting home for the silhouttes.
Thanks Andrew. It’s a good thought, I’ll point out this article to them!
Loved reading this! Such a beautiful way to connect Jane Austen’s world with the art of silhouettes. The idea of capturing both Austen and her characters in this style feels so thoughtful and fitting. Thanks for sharing this lovely project!
Thank you Louise.