Walker, George (McKechnie Section 1)

Recorded by Jackson (Dictionary), who gives the date 1820. It is evident from his only known trade label (a stencil) that Walker was either a native of Liverpool or based there for a period. Foskett lists a George Walker, who exhibited portraits, landscapes, and portrait miniatures at the Royal Academy 1792- 1815, but since G. Walker the silhouette artist was working in Liverpool as late as 1841 it is unlikely that this was the same artist.

Walker's address in Liverpool was 48 Lord Street. The very few known silhouettes suggest that he was working during the early 1840s. Jackson's date of 1820 seems improbable in view of the paucity of extant work, for it seems unlikely that Walker's output over a period exceeding twenty years would have been so meagre, unless the greater part of it has been lost.

One illustrated example is backed with the name of a frame-maker in Cardigan. This might suggest that Walker visited Wales; alternatively, the sitter might have visited Liverpool and had his silhouette taken there by Walker.

Since Walker describes himself on his stencil as 'artist', he presumably did not work only in the field of silhouettes.

There is no record that Walker cut full-length profiles and the two extant examples (silhouettes of a man and a woman; both illustrated) are bust-length. They are rather large, measuring nearly four inches high. They are cut from a dull black paper, and competently, though sparingly, embellished with gold with a fine brush. Chinese white is used to show the shirt- collar on the profile of the man. The painting of the ear is similar on both examples. The bust-line of the silhouette of the man forms a narrow and slight convexity-concavity line. The silhouette of the woman has no bust-line termination, and the image Is continued to the base of the oval.

Ills. 614-616