Wass, John (SCC Newsletter April 2010)

John Wass fl. c. 1820's

A minor artist—yet above the common herd !

Introduction

Some of you may have works by this artist, but probably only one example, as he does not seem to have been very prolific. Three examples of his work I have come across are all somewhat different in style from those described in Mrs. McK's book on page 447. All are painted with some skill and flare in my view. So I thought this was an opportunity to look at the work of this artist in some more detail. At the end of this article I will add a postscript on his namesake C. H. Wass—an artist, who is likely to have been his son.

His Background.

Unfortunately very little is known about Mr J. Wass—Mrs N. Jackson recorded his first name as `John' in her `Dictionary'. Where she obtained this information is not known as at the time his only recorded handwritten inscription just used the initial ‘J’. So Mrs McK. decided to ignore the full name in her Book! However, on the back of one of Wass silhouettes there is an inscription (which I will illustrate later) that uses the name `John'. From this think it is safe to assume that this was his Christian name. This information may now enable further research to be done—perhaps though the 1831 census. I wish sometimes that I had a ‘modern’ Percy Higgs (Mrs McK's indefatigable researcher!) to have a go! We know that he worked at 76, Cornhill and possibly at number 70 in the same street. This address is in the City of London and more likely to have been a business address, where he met his clients. Mrs. McK. has suggested that Wass might have been a part-time artist with other strings to his bow—possibly his silhouette career was a short one. I note that the silhouette artist G. Cryer, who worked in the early 1830's had a workshop and gallery at 68, Cornhill—so this area of London was clearly used by artists at the time. Also, it has been suggested that Wass might have been a miniaturist as he had painting skills—however, he is not recorded by Daphne Foskett. No full-length work is recorded as being by Mr Wass.

At the top of this page I have photographed an unfinished silhouette from the back of a finished silhouette by Wass, which I will be describing later in this article. It shows his modus operandi as well as the importance of not wasting paper and card at this time!

Wass Page 2

His type of work and style

Mrs McK. states that he painted in a dark grey base colour—sometimes this was of a bluish tint. Certainly this is true of the two silhouettes she uses for her entry and illustrated on page 506 illus. 946 & 947. I have illustrated both above together with the inscription on the reverse of the lady. The gent does not have an inscription but has been attributed to Wass by Mrs McK. on stylistic grounds together with the similarity of the brush strokes applied to the pair.

The lady is not in her first youth but she looks 'homely’! She is painted in a greyish black with her fichu in thinned watercolour. Gum arabic has been used skilfully to highlight her cap, hair and the outline of her sleeve demarcation. This shows up well against the dark grey background (although has come out white in the photo). Her hair outside the main body is depicted with fine watercolour strokes. These fine strokes could provide an attribution ‘tool’ for this artist’s work. Her costume would indicate that she was painted about 1825. Her size is 2.5" X 3". She is housed in a papier mache frame with an acorn hanger,

Her gentleman companion is painted in a similar style—arabic being used to show details of his jacket and on his hair. Mrs. McK. likened Wass's style with these two silhouettes to that of Gillespie, but with the fan shape group of strokes showing the arm demarcation missing. In fact, as I will show later when describing the silhouettes by Wass, he does show this 'device' albeit with fewer strokes.

The bust-line termination is the usual convexity and concavity type—but Mrs McK, points out that it is somewhat wider than that of many other artists in order to accommodate the wide sleeve at the shoulder. As you will notice Inter this width is not consistent in Wass's work.

When Mrs McK. bought the lady above she thought she was buying a work by an artist names 'Hayes' - but later discovered that the 'y' was in fact an elongated 's', which I understand was popular to use at the time. Certainly all Wass's recorded inscriptions have this type of 's'. I am grateful to the owner of the lady above for the coloured photographs of her and her inscription.

Wass Page 3

Above is the first silhouette by Wass together with the inscription on the reverse. She is a little scruffy and has been cut down at some point—I think this may have removed the date she was painted. She is housed in a small rectangular papier mache frame of small size. Her base colour is black—gold and gum arabic have been used to highlight details of her hat and clothing. She is rather small in size—height 2.25". The quality of her highlights are not Wass at his best—the strokes are rather cursory—she is possibly an early work.

Below is a lady painted in a more sophisticated style with more highlighted detail on her clothing and head covering. Her gum arabic has been more skilfully applied—I have enlarged her head to show this. Her base colour is also black. Her inscription is written in ink on the wood backing her rectangular reeded wood frame this gives 70 Cornhill and a date Oct. 13 1820. She is larger than the lady above—being 3" in height.

Wass Page 4

This gentleman, I think he is the most satisfactory in many ways. He is well painted with some subtlety in the use of gold and gum arabic for highlighting. Like the two ladies his base colour is black but he has quite a wide bust line termination. In size he is between the two ladies being 2.5" in height. I have shown his head in more detail, so that the fine strokes for his hair outside the main body can be seen.

His inscription is on a separate piece of backing paper. This gives the name 'John' and adds the word `drawn' - so I judge that this was written in less of a hurry! His date is quite clear ie "Aug. 29 1820—so he was painted somewhat earlier than the dated lady.

It is of interest that the aborted silhouette illustrated at the head of this article is behind this gentleman. This would indicate that Wass framed his work before giving to the client—as I doubt if a sitter would want an unfinished work of possibly an unknown person on the back of one he had commissioned!

His Frames

Clearly these varied but generally I would expect to find Wass's silhouettes in a standard-type papier mache frame with an acorn hanger or possibly the cheaper rectangular wooden reeded frame.