A fine and wonderfully crisp miniature silhouette portrait of a young woman. The artist has used a very intense black with elements of ruffled fabric and delicate hair picked out around the edges of the silhouette using a very fine faded ink.
The silhouette is presented in a papier mache frame with a bucranium hanging clasp and a brass oval inner window. On the back of the plaster block is a very indistinct engraving, possibly with the date 1805 and likely with the name of the sitter.
On alabaster plaster block.The glazing has some scratching. The silhouette is in fine condition. The frame has a loss to the lower left corner and two to the right edge but is in otherwise fine condition.
8.5 x 6.8cm (3.3" x 2.7")Framed Size: 15.5 x 13.2cm (6.1" x 5.2")
Born in Leeds, he established a business first in Edinburgh, and operated in various Northern towns before setting up studios in The Strand, London around 1788. Here he operated a very successful business recording customers profiles in "3 minute sittings". His miniatures were produced on ivory or plaster and feature delicate shading to show detail of the hair and clothes. The sitter's face was recorded as a black silhouette.
In 1785, Miers writes on the back of one of his images promoting the process: “preserves the most exact Symmetry and animated expression of the Features, much Superior to any other Method. Time of sitting one minute. N.B. He keeps the original Shades, and can supply those he has once taken with any number of Copies. Those who have Shades by them may have them reduced to any Size, and dress’d in the present taste.”
Miers specialty was painting unrelieved black on plaster. His name was first mentioned in the London Directory of 1792.
At the end of his life in 1821, Miers is considered to have amassed 100,000 profiles in his studio.
| SKU | qd914 |
|---|---|
| Artist | attrib John Miers (1756–1821) |
| Date | circa 1805 |
| Dimensions | 8.5 x 6.8cm |
| Medium | Pen and Ink |
| Style | Illustration Art |
| Subject | Portrait |
| Item Returns | This item can be returned |
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