MASTERPIECE

Suvée takes up a theme that reflects a trend from the Enlightenment: shadow portraiture. A “portrait à la Silhouette” involves tracing the outline of a facial profile and cutting it out. The result is a razor-sharp contrast between a black portrait against a light background, with details in the contours of collars, hats and wigs. A complex shape is thus reduced to a single-colour image. The focus is on simplicity and linearity, key elements in the neoclassical aesthetic. The link to Antiquity – such as texts by Pliny – plays an important role in imagery. The dissemination of the theory that human personality can be read from the face caused increased interest in silhouette portraits. Tracing facial contours evolved from an amusing pastime in 18th-century French salons to an art form in its own right in the 19th century. It remained popular until the advent of the age of photography.