The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1894-12-22
TIE FAD.


~ A1l DO"U
by Lavater.
The fashion for silhouettes is gain.
ing a strong hold in New York, and
in the fashionable drawing rooms
very many will be seen hanging
about the walls. Fantastic ideas in
photographing appear to be the
popular method just now.
1t is a word that every one is famil.
lar with, but no one probably has
thought Of its origin, and the ex.
PLANTATION of that origin shows upon
how frail a basis some of our poDu.
lar words r constructed. Some.
where in the neighborhood of 1OC
years ago a man started in Paris
what he called Chinese shadows, in
which the exhibition consisted of
throwing upon a sheet the black out
lines of an object and making these
objects perform a play. About that
time the finances of the country
were very low, and a banker of the
name of Silhouette was called upon
to take hold of them and bolster
them up. This he did, but failed
eventually to accomplish the results
that the people wanted, and this fail.
ure largely came about through a
scheme that M. Silhouette was inter
ested in and upon which he published
a book called "a General Idea For
the Government Of the Chinese"
The popularity of the Chinese shad-
ows caused many people to say that
the minister of finance was publish.
ing this book as an advertisement fo1
the shadows. The show was called
Silhouette in derision, and that name
has chung to that particular picture
ever since.
Lavater, who is about the only
man who has made a study Of this
shadow art and certainly the only
one who has acquired any fame
through it, reduced it to a science
and said that there were nine C
lions to be considered in making
these portraits: (1) The arc from the
top of the head to the end of the
hair, CD the shape of the forehead
to the eyebrows, 90 the space be-
tween the eyebrows and the top of
the nose, (4) the nose to the begin
ming of the upper lip, 20 the upper
lip, (6) the point where the two lips
meet and the completion of the
lower lip, 60 the portion between
the lower lip and the chin, (S) the
chin, and (9) the throat.
The method pursued by those few
artists who make this sort of thing
a feature is to employ a chair made
especially for the purpose and which
has rests which will hold the body
and the head in an immovable posi-
ton. The shadow is then reflected
on a paper that is stretched over a
piece of glass and placed in a mov-
able frame and which works up and
down in another frame that is at.
tached to one arm of the chair. The
shadow is thrown on this paper by
an artificial light at the opposite side
OF the chair away from the frame.
The artist then outlines upon the
paper with a crayon the shadow that
is there cast.
This is an absolute silhouette.
Those that are cut offhand from a
piece of black paper are often excel
lent, but they r not what the early
artists understood by the word and
are not what has now come into
fashion.
In making them for society pur.
poses these silhouettes are photo
graphed-that is, after the subject
has been seated and the shadow
thrown on the paper the camera is
brought to bear upon it, and a mega
tive is made, which is printed off as
any other photograph, but in place
of the former profile showing the
features in a natural condition there
now exists merely the outlines and a
solid black mass within. detroit
Free Press.