Victorian Style Silhouettes

Silhouettes by Jo - Prices from £39

A romantic and affordable gift can be a silhouette of the two of you created for a paper or other anniversary present. This beautiful Victorian style silhouette can be mounted in a frame. For several hundreds of years silhouettes have been extremely popular.

Many aspiring portrait artists or miniaturists turned to creating silhouettes in the eighteenth century to tide themselves over when work was scarce.  Silhouettes were known as "shades". Many artists found they developed a reputation for their fine silhouettes and made a name for their work in this genre.   Silhouettes became "art for the people" in so far as it provided a cheap and accessible access to portraiture.

The eighteenth century is widely regarded as the renaissance of silhouettes. English silhouettes in those days were generally painted, not cut-out. The skill of the best artists lay in the painting. This was done with soot, or lamp black, on plaster or glass. After painting the face, hair, hats, ribbons, and other essential accessories of the day, would have been "dragged" out, using a fine brush with  diluted pigment.

The art of silhouette cutting originated in Europe in the early 1700's.  Prior to the French revolution, silhouettists were hired as an amusement for the royal class. The featured artist would attend the many extravagant balls and cut out the distinguished profiles of the Lords and Ladies capturing the latest fashions and elaborate wigs. The art of silhouette cutting reached its "golden age" in the 1800's. Many European silhouettists  travelled to county fairs and small towns capturing the profiles and the hearts of countless thousands of ordinary folk.

Our silhouettes can easily be commissioned by email. Normally, you can email me for a sheet of instructions with the requirements of the photos to be supplied.  If photos are provided, prices start at £39.00 for one silhouette in mount and a pair of different adults or children in a mount start at £70.00 for a double set. Photography is available if required, but clients will need to be near Richmond in Surrey to be photographed. If the photography is not as the instructions, there may be an extra charge to make good. There will be a small extra charge for photography. The photography is not hard to do, see sample below.

Two silhouettes can be placed in a double silver frame as below for as little as £16.00 extra for frame.

Children always look exquisite as silhouettes. Perhaps you would like to give your partner or grandparent a silhouette of a child or grandchild.

Please email with your enquiry if this interests you. It may be possible to use existing photos you supply. Send some to me to look at and I will let you know.

Here are some recent commissions. Photos were provided online and the jobs were turned around in about a week. The client managed to get the silhouettes done as a total surprise and they were a unique and moving gift for a paper anniversary. To order or enquire about costs, please email us.

A further example of a brother and sister. This was a lovely gift for a grandparent.

Here is an example of the type of photography that was required to produce this silhouette.