Siblings in Profile

There are only a handful of known extant silhouettes by Alfred Darbyshire, including this example showing three children on a watercolour wash base. The style of their attire, in particular the Victoria sleeves on the girl’s dress and her ankle-length pantaloons, date the piece to the early 1840s. The work is neatly cut with good detailing – tunic buttons, eyelashes, cropped hair and heeled shoes.

The earliest record for Darbyshire is an advertisement in the Birmingham Journal (26 Dec. 1840) when he was offering cut paper profiles, landscapes and cattle on behalf of the Adelaide Gallery. Listed as a 26-year-old artist in the 1841 Census, he was based at York Street (now Bedale Street), Southwark. The following year he married Sarah Bennett, a widow. Despite his talent for cut-work, Darbyshire’s artistic career was very short-lived as by 1851 he and wife were saloon owners in nearby Marylebone. Some twelve years older than her husband, Sarah died at the age of 48 in December 1851 whereupon all trace of Alfred Darbyshire disappears from the records.

With very light age-browning to the background card, the silhouette is in good condition; it is housed in a Hogarth style frame.