Hanks (McKechnie Section 1)

Recorded by Jackson (The History of Silhouettes) who refers to him as 'an English prodigy'. Earlier collectors owned silhouettes of English sitters, including the Duke of Clarence (later William IV), which have been attributed to Hanks. Although more recent evidence shows that Hanks was of American origin, the possibility that he worked in Britain cannot be eliminated, and I have therefore included him in this book.0

1

Hanks was born at Pittsford, Otsego County, New York. He served in the army in the 1812 war. In 1817 he moved to what is now West Virginia and took up sign-painting and teaching. He is known to have been in Philadelphia in 1823, but he then returned westward, and worked in Cleveland and Cincinnati during the years 1825-26. It was at this point that he began work as a profilist and portrait painter. He was in New York 1827-34, during which period he visited Charleston, Salem (Massachusetts) and New Orleans. He had returned to Cleveland by 1838, and remained there until at least 1852, at which point we lose trace of him.

Graves lists a J. F. Hankes, exhibiting from London, 1838-59, thirty-three 'Scriptural' subjects. Nineteen of these were shown at the Royal Academy. According to Groce and Wallace (Dictionary of Artists in America) Hanks the silhouette artist was in Cleveland during this period. It is possible, however, that he was the artist listed by Graves, and that he paid occasional visits to Britain after settling in Cleveland.

Hanks was much associated with the Hubard Gallery (q.v.) during its period in the United States. The first reference to Hanks work as a silhouette cutter for the gallery appeared on 10 January 1828 in the Charleston Courier. At this time Hanks was about twenty-nine years old. It would seem that the title of 'Master' was bestowed on him by Smith, the manager of the gallery at the time. Alice Van Leer Carrick gives the full text of the advertisement in A History of American Silhouettes:

WILL OPEN THIS EVENING

AT SEVEN O'CLOCK

THE PAPYROTOMIA

OR GALLERY OF

PAPER CUTTINGS

THE ONLY EXHIBIT OF ITS KIND

IN THE WORLD!

Executed by Masters Hubard and Hankes, in a style which has astonished the first Artists in Europe, and attracted admiring crowds in all the Principle Cities in Great Britain and America, will be exhibited in Mr. Lege's Room, Queen Street, between Church and Meeting Streets.

Admittance 50 cents: children are only charged the price of a Likeness, namely, 25 cents.

Visitors are presented with striking likenesses of themselves cut in a few seconds without the least aid from any Drawing or Machine. By Master Hankes, a youth who possesses the rare talent of delineating every object in Nature and Art, simply with a pair of common scissors.

Full-length Likenesses, plain or elegantly bronzed. Likenesses of Horses, Dogs, etc. taken during the day. Frames in great variety. Likenesses copied.

Persons who have once visited the exhibit and inserted their names in the Gallery Register, may return in future by paying 24 cents or have gratuitous admission by introducing a friend.

The Gallery is brilliantly lighted in the Evenings. Admission from 11 till 2, from 4 till 5, and from 7 till 9.

Although the exhibition showed Hubard's work as well as that of Hanks, it seems that only Hanks was still actually working with the Gallery, as a 'youth' of nearly thirty.

Mrs Carrick also quotes a letter published in the press a few days after this show opened. This reads:

Curiosity led me to visit on Tuesday evening last, the Papyrotomia or Gallery of Paper Cutting, and the exhibit of it both pleased and astonished me. Such a number and variety of the human face and figure, with a multitude of other objects, executed with a pair of scissors, is truly a novelty of art. Several accurate Likenesses were taken of Ladies and Gentlemen by Master Hankes in a few minutes. By this ingenious mode of delineation, the outlines, and much of the expression of the face, is obtained for a mere trifle. A survey of the Gallery of the Cuttings constitutes, of itself, an amusement to the ... Visitor.

Advertisements continued to appear in the press until 14 April.

On 1 October 1824 Mrs Smith, wife of the manager of the Hubard Gallery, wrote to her mother about the arrival of the gallery in New York. She mentioned the Christian names of two boys (Emmanuel and Robert) who worked with the gallery, as well as Hubard. Since we know from Groce and Wallace's entry that Hanks' Christian name was Jervis, we can assume that at this time he was not working with the gallery. We cannot be certain that Hanks went with the gallery to the ‘Canadas’ (to use the name given on one of the gallery's trade labels) in 1826-27, as he is said by Groce and Wallace to have been listed in New York City as a painter in 1827 — as, indeed, it appears he was still listed in 1828, when it is known for certain that he was with the Hubard Gallery.

Another reference to his work in 1828 was recorded by Joseph B. Felt in the The Annals of Salem (a book listed, without the year of publication, by Mrs Carrick):

Master Hankes, as the successor of the celebrated Master Hubard, is advertised as capable of delineating every object in nature or art, with extraordinary correctness. This he did by means of paper and scissors, merely looking at the object represented. It took him but a few minutes to give an exact bust of any person he saw. His full-length portraits are rare, one is in the Essex Institute, Massachusetts. At Concert Hall, where his talent was fully and successfully tested, was the Papryotomia, a curious collection of paper cuttings. Admission 25 cents . . . In this Department of art several young women of Salem have excelled.

It will be seen from the list of American artists in Appendix 5 that Salem was indeed a great centre for silhouette work in the United States.

In A History of American Silhouettes Mrs Carrick illustrates several portraits by Hanks. Jackson refers to one or two more documented examples; one shown by the Maryland Society of Colonial Dames of America in 1911, when it was owned by Mr and Mrs Whitridge, is of a Miss Henrietta Moffet. Another, of Commodore Preble, dated 1828, bears on the back a trade label worded 'Gallery of Cuttings/ Cut by Master Hankes with Scissors'; it was owned by the Maine Society of Portland, United States.

Mrs Carrick had herself seen an advertisement of the Gallery in the Salem Register (10 July 1828). This reads:

NOVEL AND INTERESTING EXHIBITION

CONCERT HALL

FOR A SHORT TIME

THE PAPRYOTOMIA

ACCOMPANIED BY

THE TALENTED YOUNG ARTIST

MASTER HANKES

THE IMMEDIATE AND ONLY SUCCESSOR

TO THE CELEBRATED

MASTER HUBARD

The Papryotomia is a numerous collection of Cuttings in Paper executed in a style which has astonished the first Artists in Europe, and attracted admiring crowds in great Britain and America. It consists of Sporting, Military and Architectural Subjects, Flowers, Trees, Portraits of distinguished individuals in Europe and America.

ADMISSION 25 CENTS.

For which each visitor is entitled to see the Gallery of Cuttings, and to obtain a Correct Likeness in Bust, cut in a few seconds without Drawing or Machine. By sight alone! and simply with a common pair of scissors by Master Hankes, a youth who possesses the rare talent of delineating every object in Nature or Art, in the same extraordinary manner. Full Length Portraits, 1.25. Likenesses elegantly finished in bronze by Mr. Reynolds 50 cents extra and upwards, Likenesses in colors.

Open daily at the Concert Hall, from 10 to 1 — from 3 to 6 — and from 8 till ½ past 9. Catalogues furnished. The room is brilliantly illuminated every evening.

This and other similarly worded advertisements appeared in several issues of the same journal. Most of them ended with the sentence, 'Next Tuesday will be the Last Day'. In a final announcement in Salem, on about 7 August, a passage was added:

SPLENDID ADDITION

TO THE

PAPRYOTOMIA

Owing to the numerous applications for Likenesses, and at the request of many citizens, etc.. Master Hankes has been induced to furnish an elegant and elaborate view of York Minster, the most splendid Gothic structure in Great Britain. This is entirely delineated with scissors, and it is the most extensive production ever attempted.

If Hankes never visited Britain (or had not done so by this time) one can only assume that he cut this piece after a print or drawing of the Minster brought by the gallery from England.

It appears that the Hubard Gallery, between spells in Charleston and Salem, was in Baltimore with Hanks as its profilist. This move had been contemplated as early as March 1828, in Charleston, although the gallery is known to have remained there until 14 April. The gallery may have visited other American cities and towns during the rest of 1828, and possibly early in 1829; the gallery appears to have returned to England at some time late in 1829. It seems that there is no documentary evidence that Hanks was with the gallery at any time except in 1828.

Six authenticated examples of Hanks's work are illustrated by Mrs Carrick in A History of American Silhouettes and can most easily be studied in that book. Five of them are bust-length profiles. The sixth, which is full-length, is of Dr Edward A. Holyoke; the original is owned by the Essex Institute. It must be assumed that all these six pieces date from c. 1828. Of the bust-length profiles, two were bronzed (presumably by the `Mr Reynolds' referred to in the advertisement published in Salem, quoted above, if he was with the gallery while it was in Baltimore, where these two profiles were taken).

Four of the five bust-length profiles are of women, and show cutting of a not particularly high standard. The bust-line in front dips almost to the waist, and a deep concavity is shown at the junction of the arm with the rest of the profile. There is no evidence of any slash cutting. The fifth bust-length profile (of a man) was owned by the Essex Institute. This example also shows a marked concavity between the arm and the rest of the profile on the bust-line, placed rather farther in because of the width of the sleeve on men's coats at the time. This profile is said in the caption to be 'bronzed', although no detail is visible on the photograph.

Hanks's full-length profile of Dr Holyoke was taken when the sitter was a hundred years old. This shows undistinguished plain black cutting. The sitter, not surprisingly, is dressed in the costume of about twenty years earlier, and wears a thin pigtail wig (poorly indicated). Some trouble has been taken to show the 'knops' on the sitter's cane. The figure stands on a rough wash base, with some added rough streaks of water-colour near the feet to indicate a shadow; another streak shows the shadow thrown by the cane. The legs appear mis-shapen, but this may be accounted for by the sitter's great age, and not by a lapse of skill on the part of the artist.

I have seen no work by Hanks which is as elaborate as the York Minster piece appears to have been. Hanks took silhouettes of horses and dogs, but it is unlikely that these were as well cut as those by Edouart, for instance.

It is impossible to describe with any accuracy the type of gilding seen on Hanks's work. We only know that, in Salem, a man named Reynolds was responsible for this part of the work; in other towns different artists may have been employed for gilding.

The only silhouettes which are certainly by Hanks were marked 'Gallery of Cuttings, cut by Master Hankes with Common Scissors.' If Hanks produced work for the Hubard Gallery 'in the Canadas', the stencilled label worded 'Taken at the Papryotomic Hubard Gallery' (Trade Label No. 4 of the Hubard Gallery) may have been used for this.