Brookes, Frederick (SCC Newsletter April 2011)

FREDERICK BROOKES fl. 1855?

Some more information on this artist — was he within the scope of the BOOK?

Mrs. McKechnie justified an entry on this artist (on page 193) after being shown a silhouette by the artist by Miss D. Hare, who was a well known dealer and collector at the time. It seemed to be dated about the mid 1850's - it is illustrated above and is also illustrated in the Book on page 291 illus. 316.

The silhouette.

This was described as being "rather large" ie. 3.75". It is lightly and somewhat casually bronzed and inscribed underneath the work "Fredk Brookes, Silhouette Artist, Royal Aquarium, Westminster". From this inscription Mrs. McKechnie assumed that Brookes was probably working in a sideshow at the Royal Aquarium when the silhouette was taken. She noted that the shirt front and collar were cut away and that the artist had stuck a tiny piece of black paper in the gap to represent a stock pin. She had not seen this done by another artist.

I have come across two further silhouettes by the artist, together with some further information about the Royal Aquarium Westminster, which makes it clear that Mrs. McKechnie was mistaken in her dating of the Hare silhouette. It is unlikely that Brookes was working as an artist until the 1870's — so would have been out of the scope of the Book.

The Royal Aquarium.

This was built in 1874 in the classical style to the design of a Mr Redborough. It was said to be similar in general plan to the then Chrystal Palace. In the basement there was a great central tank containing 600.000 gallons of salt and fresh water. On the ground floor was a high hall with table tanks for small fish and other forms of marine life. There were gardens, a circus, a zoo and many other forms of entertainment. The whole covered almost three acres. It seems that it ran until its closure in 1906.

Brookes Page 11

More silhouettes by Mr. Brookes.

The man above is only 3.25” in height, but in style he is exactly similar to the Hare silhouette on the page opposite. The shirt collar is cut-out and the whole work is covered with cursory gilding, which highlights both details of clothing and facial features such as ears, sideburns and moustache. The eyelash has been inked in. The bust-line termination is the same – with the small ‘clip’ at the front.

Unfortunately the lady has been cut down to fit a papier mache frame. She was sold originally on a rectangular card unframed with the printed label beneath. I have attempted to reconstruct this and she has been put into an album! In height she must have been at least 3.75” – so considerably larger than most bust-length works being produced at the time. Again her gilding is cursory but quite effective in showing the details of her obviously Victorian hat. She has no eyelash.

Below are two further silhouettes of women - both owned by a member of the S.C.C. Both illustrate the same points I have made above in regard to the artist’s style, and the sizing of his works. Although the bust-line termination of the lady on the right does not quite add up!

I do not think that works by Brookes would be too difficult to attribute on stylistic grounds. Clearly his work is not highly skilled and he will never be a must for a collector, who only wants the major artists. Nevertheless, I think he is quite typical of the artists working at this time – about whom little has been written.. We know it was a period of decline in the history of silhouette as photography had taken over, it is possible that more details of Mr. Brooke’s life and career could be obtained from census records.