CultureAmerican
Titles
- Silhouette Drawing of a Young Woman
Datec. 1830–1835
PlacePhiladelphia (probably), Pennsylvania, United States
MediumBlack ink with chalk delineation on wove wood pulp paper
DimensionsImage: 3 × 1 3/8 in. (7.6 × 3.6 cm)
Sheet: 4 3/8 × 3 1/4 in. (11.1 × 8.3 cm)
Sheet: 4 3/8 × 3 1/4 in. (11.1 × 8.3 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Mrs. David Bland in memory of Frankie Maud Murphy Aves
Object numberB.77.19
Non exposé
Explore Further
Department
Bayou BendObject Type
This silhouette drawing is unusual in that the subject is an African American. A fragment from a Philadelphia newspaper within the frame suggests that the work was produced there. The Spanish-style comb in her hair and large sleeves of her dress lend a note of fashionable elegance.
Book excerpt: David B. Warren, Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff. American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.
ProvenanceMrs. David Bland, Houston; given to MFAH, 1976.
Exhibition History"Exhibited As We Are”: Fighting Racism with Art in the Age of Slavery,” The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Bayou Bend Collection, April 29–August 16, 2015.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
[no inscriptions]
[no marks]
Cataloguing data may change with further research.
If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.
c. 1830–1840
Black ink with brown and white chalk delineation on wove paper
B.69.239
George Robertson
c. 1805
Watercolor, ink, ink wash, graphite and black chalk on forty-six sheets of wove paper
2024.546
Ford Madox Brown
1869
Black chalk, black and brown ink, iron gall ink, gray and brown wash with watercolor on wove paper
2015.282
Thomas Tudor
19th century
Black chalk and watercolor on wove paper (recto); black chalk on wove paper (verso)
2024.278.A,.B
Ilka Gedő
1948
Black chalk on wove paper
2022.349
Ilka Gedő
1948
Black chalk on wove paper
2022.352
Guido Reni
c. 1609
Black and red chalk with white chalk on brown laid paper
2011.839
Alphonse Mucha
1896
Black chalk, and brush and ink on wove paper
2020.65
Denys Calvaert
c. 1595
Black chalk, pen and brown ink, watercolor, and white heightening, squared for transfer with black chalk on laid paper
2013.173
Moses Williams
after 1803
Cut wove paper and black textile
B.2021.9