I’m happy to be working with One Aldwych as one of their cultural curators. These articles tell the story and the rich history of silhouettes in the area.
I SPEND SO MUCH TIME writing and researching unknown and obscure silhouette artists that the question “who are the best known silhouette artists?” rather threw me. The art of the silhouette portrait is, on the one hand, ubiquitous. We see silhouettes everywhere, yet few people know much about the artists who made them.
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.
THE AREA OF LONDON around Strand and Aldwych has always fascinated me, so I was intrigued to be approached by One Aldwych to be one of their cultural curators.
JOHN MIERS is one of my favourite artists. I find there is still much to be learned about the art of painting silhouettes from studying his work. He worked from a studio at 111 Strand, London, and is known amongst the silhouette-collecting fraternity as the finest silhouettist of the eighteenth century.
MY MOST RECENT PURCHASE is an eighteenth-century silhouette by Isabella Beetham. Beetham is a well-known Georgian artist and her work is much prized by collectors today. She’s also something of a feminist icon and worked from a studio near Aldwych in London.
