Ezra Wood, the Puffy Sleeve Artist

In a groundbreaking article "Unmistaken Identity," published in Magazine Antiques, July/August 2014, Michael R. Payne, Suzanne Rudnick Payne and Samuel Herrup argue that the identity of the early 19th-century American folk portraitist, who had previously been referred to under the sobriquet, 'The Puffy Sleeve Silhouette Artist,' was actually Ezra Wood (1789-1841) of Buckland, Massachusetts. Wood likely learned the art of making silhouettes from his father-in-law, Josiah Fuller, who advertised as a silhouette artist in local papers in 1807. As one of the most highly sought after silhouette artists of the early 19th century, Wood developed a singular vernacular that includes a dark face in profile juxtaposed against a vibrantly colored dress bearing exaggerated leg of mutton sleeves and a cinched waist.