Hollow-Cut Profile Portrait of a Woman

Dateca. 1805

Artist William Jennys (1774-1859)

MediumCut wove paper with black fabric backing

DimensionsPrimary support: 4 3/8" x 3 5/8". Framed: 5 9/16" x 4 1/2" (excluding a loop of wire clinched through the upper frame member as a hanging device).

Credit LineGift of Mary B. and William Lehman Guyton

Object number1999.306.1

DescriptionA hollow-cut bust-length profile portrait of a woman facing left, most of her hair being gathered into a knot at the back of her head. There is a blind stamp below the bust line.
Label TextPencil guidelines along the chin and front of the face are not proof that William Jennys employed mechanical help in capturing a side view of this woman's head, but an 1805 newspaper advertisement does indicate that he relied on a physiognotrace (a simple machine for transferring an outline onto paper) to record profiles, at least on occasion.
Jennys is far better known for full-scale oil portraits, and the scarcity of cut silhouettes identified as his work suggests that he quickly abandoned the practice. This example bears a blind stamp reading "W JENNYS." Only eight others so marked have been noted to date.
InscribedNo original inscriptions found. On the wooden backboard in black ink is the Guyton acc. no. "S2" and, below this, in a modern hand, is "W. JENNYS" (the latter written above a struck through "W. DANNYS").
MarkingsA blind stamp in the primary support below the bust line appears to read, "W JENNYS" in a rectangular block format. A watermark at upper left in the primary support is largely missing, being cut off by the edge of the paper; the remnant appears to be a "W..." over the beginning date "18..."
ProvenanceDr. and Mrs. W. Lehman Guyton, Cockeysville, Maryland.