Etienne de Silhouette - Full-length silhouette portrait
Etienne de Silhouette (1709-1767) - French Controller-General of Finances under Louis XV of France. His miserly tenure gave birth to the term a la Silhouette applying to the perception of things as cheap. The cutting of shadow profiles from black paper gained in popularity at a similar time and these simple (and cheap!) alternatives to painted miniatures or sculpture also gained the tag silhouette'. This terminolgy subsequently stuck
Picture No
10547687
Media ID
48260938
Size
2861px x 5784px
(588KB)
Credit
Mary Evans Picture Library/Tom Gillmor
Source
Digital silhouette from an unattributed portrait of de Silhouette
Date
circa 1750
