Reading the Courier

Augustin Amant Constant Fidèle Edouart (to give him his full name!) loved to add props to his conversation pieces such as children’s toys or a musical instrument. Books and newspapers were another popular choice as seen in this silhouette where the newspaper is also cut out and realistically painted with columns entitled The Courier.

Seated in a relaxed pose with his legs crossed, the gentleman wears a tail coat, breeches and buckled shoes. Note too the added details of the curls on his forehead, his eyelash and the dangling eyeglass. The sepia watercolour background shows an inkstand on a cloth-covered table before a draped window with a water landscape beyond.

Although the sitter is unnamed, the silhouette is signed on the obverse Augt Edouart. It is presented in a handsome bird’s eye maple veneer frame with a gilt slip. The frame joints are a little gappy with minor losses whilst the slip has an attractive patina.

Finding himself exiled in England with a family to support, Augustin Edouart opened a shop in Cheltenham selling French curios and artificial flowers but the death of his wife in childbirth with their third child caused the venture to falter. A dinner party challenge acted as a catalyst for his next business as a silhouette cutter. Edouart then spent the next fifteen years travelling with his scissors and stock of frames cutting many thousands of profiles before sailing to New York where his meticulous work was equally well-favoured.