Samuel Metford
Silhouette

Public Domain

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ArtistPossibly Samuel Metford (American, born England, 1810–1896)American, born England, 1810–1896

CultureAmerican

Titles

Silhouette

Datec. 1835–1845

PlaceConnecticut, United States

Dimensions12 × 10 in. (30.5 × 25.4 cm)

Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Miss Ima Hogg

Object numberB.69.233.2

Not on view

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Department

Bayou Bend

Object Type

DRAWINGS, PASTELS & WATERCOLORS

DescriptionSamuel Metford was born in Glastonbury, England, into a Quaker family. In England, he specialized in full-length silhouette likenesses, cut from black paper and embellished with gold and white paint. He made "some very fine family groups—Father and Mother surrounded by their children and pets, with hand-painted backgrounds of imposing rooms whose tall windows looked out on wide landscapes, or a seascape with a tall-funneled steamship in a prominent position." In about 1834, he moved to the United States and spent some ten years there, working mostly in Connecticut but also in New York and South Carolina. He returned to England in the 1840s and lived there for the rest of his life. He died at Weston-super-Mare.
ProvenanceJacob Paxson Temple (1880–1924), Tanguy, Pennsylvania; consigned to [The Anderson Galleries, New York, “The Jacob Paxson Temple Collection,” sale 1626, January 23–28, 1922]; purchased by William C. Hogg (1875–1930), 1922, lot 76 or 89; by descent to Miss Ima Hogg; given to MFAH, by 1969.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

Signed lower left recto sheet: Saml. Metford fecit

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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