Silhouette Drawing of a Young Woman

Public Domain

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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)

Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Mrs. David Bland in memory of Frankie Maud Murphy Aves

Object numberB.77.19

Not on view

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Department

Bayou Bend

Object Type

DRAWINGS, PASTELS & WATERCOLORS

Description

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.

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