N. Paganini. Silhouette portrait by Augustin Edouart, signed and inscribed by him, Edinburgh,1831

PAGANINI, NICCOLÒ

Silhouette portrait by Augustin Edouart, signed and inscribed on the image ("Augn. Edouart, fecit...Edinburgh 22d Oct. 1831")

c.28.3 x 18.5cm, on card, with a contemporary printed signature of the composer, affixed probably by the artist, in a card mount (overall size: c.44.5 x 34.5cm), 1831

Augustin (or Auguste) Edouart (1789-1861) was the leading nineteenth-century artist of portrait silhouettes. First in London from 1825, he began working with silhouettes, taking full-length likenesses in profile by cutting out black paper with scissors. Edouart travelled all over Britain for fifteen years, including three years (1829-1832) in Edinburgh. He produced some five thousand likenesses there, including of the exiled Charles X of France and Sir Walter Scott (NPG 1638); several are shown on the website of the National Portrait Gallery. For another silhouette of Paganini by Edouart, executed on the same day as the present item, see Sotheby's sale of 4 December 2008, lot 205.