Addington, Charlotte (British Silhouette..., Section 1, 1978)
The existence of this artist is known only from a group silhouette of figures, wearing costume of the early nineteenth century (possibly c. 1810), cut at Richmond Park. It is uncertain whether or not she was a professional profilist.
The silhouette shows eleven small figures, some of them children and none more than an inch high. The artist apparently cut the figures from one piece of shiny black paper, leaving them on a long thin black base of this paper, and then mounted the whole composition on a narrow oblong piece of card. Although she cut them 'all in a row', she achieved a skilful composition by varying the heights and placing of the figures. The figures are neoclassical in style, and one female figure bears on her head an urn, supported by her hands. The frame (possibly contemporary) is of the Hogarth type, which was often used for prints of the period.
The silhouette is carefully inscribed on the back, in a contemporary hand, 'Figures cut by Miss Charlotte Addington at Richmond Park'.
I11. 267
267
Review in a contemporary newspaper of the work of an artist working for a nineteenth-century itinerant gallery.
Review in a contemporary newspaper of the work of an artist working for a nineteenth-century itinerant gallery.
Bodleian Library, John Johnson collection
268
Group of figures
Cut silhouette
? c. 1810
10 x 2in./254 x 51mm.
Group of figures
Cut silhouette
? c. 1810
10 x 2in./254 x 51mm.
Inscribed on the reverse, ‘Figures cut by Miss Charlotte Addington at Richmond Park’.
Private collection