Wheeler, Thomas (McKechnie Section 5)
See also Sections Two and Three
Recorded by Jackson (The History of Silhouettes and, with his initial, in her Dictionary). Although on his trade labels Wheeler offers silhouettes on glass, and although I have seen a fragment of one of his trade labels on a silhouette painted on paper, the silhouettes, which I have seen which is most clearly inscribed with his name is an example painted on plaster. Regarding this silhouette as a 'base' example for the identification of other work by Wheeler, I have therefore placed the main entry on him in this Section.
We know nothing of Wheeler's origins, but we do know that he worked at Windsor for some years. There are contemporary references to him, including the following entry in the election roll list, New Windsor, for 31 January 1794: 'Thos. Wheeler, Miniature Painter, was contested for having refused to pay his rates because he was then assessed at £10 a year; but understanding that the last rate was altered to £8, he offered to pay at the day before the Election, when the Overseer refused to take it.' The only miniature painter named T. Wheeler who is recorded by Foskett was born c. 1790 (according to Leo R. Schidlof, The Miniature in Europe, 4 vols, Austria, 1964) and cannot therefore have been the artist with whom we are concerned. One T. Wheeler is recorded in the voters' list for New Windsor, and again (in a supplementary list of people who did not vote) in the list for 30 October 1806, but since he is described as a labourer it is unlikely that this was the profilist and miniature painter.
Wheeler's early work, from c. 1783, was painted on paper. Jackson records two later silhouettes, without, however, stating on what material they were painted: one, of a 'Dear Lady Frances', taken in Windsor in 1794; a second, of a Miss G. A. Vyse, taken much later on 1 August 1810. Mills lists under 'Wheeler' an example dated 1799, but again, does not mention on what material it is painted. Coke owned a silhouette, signed 'J. Wheeler', dated 1793. This silhouette, of a coachman in elaborate livery, was probably indeed by Thomas Wheeler; the sitter may have been the Royal coachman. Wheeler's career, then, appears to have spanned nearly thirty years. Since he worked in Windsor for at least part of this period, it is possible that several silhouettes of Royal personages or members of the Court, of unknown provenance, may be from his hand.
The silhouette on plaster, referred to above, bears the artist's name, 'T. Wheeler', and the date, 1790, deeply incised in the reverse of the slab. It has been enlarged in the illustration in order to show the style of brushwork of an artist whose work has rarely been postively identified. Wheeler shows more detail than do most artists who painted in black on plaster; with the possible exception of J. Thomason, they relied on expert work on the main body of the profile to achieve a finished result. On Wheeler's profiles of women all the buffon about the sitter's neck is shown; the device of showing at the back the line of the buffon separate from the back of the profile may be peculiar to his work.
Transparency is achieved by lines of thinned pigment, used also for the sitter's cap. The frill of the cap is more carefully drawn, with alternating thick lines and the use of short thin strokes and wash shading to shape the frill (a technique which Wheeler employed more expertly in his profile of Mrs Delany, illustrated in Section Two). The sitter's hair, shown by finer lines near the face, is unfortunately too short to be of value for the possible ascription to Wheeler of the many unsigned profiles of women dating from this period. The bust-line somewhat resembles that seen on the rare work of Mrs Bull.
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Three trade labels are known. I have seen only a fragment of an example of Trade Label No. 1 (on the back of a pearwood frame housing a silhouette painted on card). At the top only the last part of the artist's name (' — heeler') survives. The remainder of the fragment includes part of the wording which is written in longhand at the end of Trade Label No. 2.
No. 2 is recorded in a cutting from The Times: a letter from a Mr A. Hames,
4 April 1936 (British Museum, Ambrose Heal collection). The upper part of the text is printed; the part beginning 'Ladies and Gentlemen' is handwritten:
PROFILES
On Glass
That will not wash off, or on paper
That may be sent in a letter any
Distance without injury.
Price 5s. Frames 2s.
If not an approved Likeness, no payment
required by
T. WHEELER
at Windsor
Ladies and Gentlemen waited on at their Houses at any Hour, and it would prevent loss of time, if the Head-Dress was adjusted previous to his attending.
A STRIKING LIKENESS OF KING.
No Silhouette bearing this label is currently known; the label may have been used during the late 1780s.
The only example of No. 3 which I have seen is the inscription scratched, with a needle, deep in the plaster on the reverse of the illustrated silhouette:
'T. Wheeler/, 1790’.
Recorded signatures include ‘J. [probably T.] Wheeler’ on the silhouette formerly owned by Coke, and ‘T. Wheeler fecit August 1st ., 1810’ on the silhouette of Miss G. A. Vyse recorded by Jackson.
Ill. 1419