Barnes, Edward (McKechnie Section 2)

Known from a silhouette of a member of the Fry family, of Liverpool, taken apparently in c. 1820. The fragment of a handbill on the reverse tells us that Barnes hailed from Lord Street, Liverpool, had just come from Leicester, and was in Loughborough when the profile was taken. The only Liverpool artist of this name who can be traced was Edward Barnes, a decorative painter who had an address at Knotty Ash, Liverpool, during the 1840s, and may have painted the surviving silhouette. Examples similar w this one have been seen bearing the hanger (engraved with the word 'Museum') and trade label of William Bullock (q.v., Appendix Four), who managed a museum in Liverpool and employed profilists there, and it is possible that the subject of the present entry was among them in his early days and used Bullock's physiogonotrace. Two more silhouettes (both of men, both painted in a similar style and both painted in c. 1820) were sold by Sotheby and Company, London, on 31 January 1972.

The illustrated silhouette, with its long, sloping bust-line, is typical of much work painted at the time, though there is no 'fan-shaped' painting with gum arabic at the junction of the arm with the rest of the profile, such as is seen on the work of Gillespie or Edward Foster. Gum arabic and gold paint, however, were skilfully used in the painting of hair and clothing detail, the gold being reserved for the most prominent parts of the highlighting. The addition of three or four neat strokes of gold on the turn-back of the lapel may be a personal feature of Barnes's style.

Whether Barnes used a trade label giving the usual qualifications of a silhouette artist is not known. As I have mentioned, the illustrated silhouette bears part (apparently the upper half) of a handbill (illustrated). Signatures might be seen; many years ago I saw two cut silhouettes, dated 1842, backed with the stencil of `R. W. Barnes', but it seems unlikely that this was the same artist.

Ills. 678, 679