Two Men, One Cutting a Silhouette
1830–1900
Medium
Cut paper and ink wash
Dimensions
sheet: 15 13/16 x 13 1/16 in. (40.2 x 33.2 cm)
Classification
Cut Paper
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Glenn Tilley Morse Collection, Bequest of Glenn Tilley Morse, 1950
Accession Number
50.602.143
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the 19th-century United States, silhouette cutting emerged as a beloved form of folk portraiture, offering affordable and swift likenesses long before photography dominated. This charming anonymous work, *Two Men, One Cutting Silhouette* (1830–1900), that very tradition in action: one man deftly wields scissors to craft a profile from black paper while his companion watches intently. Created with cut paper and subtle ink wash on a modest sheet measuring about 16 x 13 inches, it exemplifies the precision and whimsy of this ephemeral art form, now preserved in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's...