Farthing, William (McKechnie Section 4)

See Section Three for main entry

Farthing is included in this section on account of a silhouette of a man, bearing Farthing's Trade Label No. 1 and painted c. 1804-06. During this period Farthing was working at 12 Cheapside, London (he left this address in 1807). We know from the trade label that Farthing did not paint profiles himself, but employed for the purpose an artist `whose Talents are acknowledged to be of high Rank in the Profession' and who I suggest was Henry Hervé I.

The silhouette, painted on a slab of plaster which is smooth on both sides, represents a man dressed in the style of the early 1800s. The à la Titus hair-style is shown by fine regular brush-strokes, continuing to the nape of the neck outside the main body of the profile. The shirt-frill is neatly rendered with a group of parallel lines, placed against a wash base consisting of two coats, of which the upper coat is the paler. The edge of the frill is neatly serrated.

It is stated on the trade label that a 'machine' was used to secure the basic outline. The base of the profile, which has a conventional bust-line truncation, is narrower than that of a profile on glass which also bears Farthing's name (see Section Three) and narrower than the type seen on labelled work by Henry Hervé I. This does not mean that Hervé could not have painted this profile on plaster, since the profiles (of men) which he painted under his own name a few years later inevitably show wider bust-lines owing to the increased width which became fashionable for men's tail-coats.

III. 1252