- 60
Augustin Amant Constant Fidèle Edouart
Estimate
30,000 - 50,000 GBP
bidding is closed
Description
- Augustin Amant Constant Fidèle Edouart
- An Album of silhouettes of 'Irish Characters'
- One hundred and thirty-five sheets, approximately one hundred and three sihouettes applied to a lithographic base heightened with watercolour washes, nine silhouettes on brown wash, one brown wash and twenty-two lithographs, all bound in marble boards;
extensively inscribed with names of the sitters, many inscribed by the sitters themselves, dated between 1833 and 1834 - Album size 28.3 by 22.3cm., 11 by 8¾in.
including portraits of Samuel Kyle, Bishop of Cork (d. 1848); Augustus Frederick Fitzgerald, 3rd Duke of Leinster (1791-1874); Richard Whateley (1787-1863); Sir Joseph Mclean (d. 1839); Major Henry Sirr (1764-1841); Dr. William Magee, Archbishop of Dublin (1766-1831); William Cobbett (1762-1835); Thomas Elrington (1760-1835); William Carleton (1794-1869); and many more
Provenance
Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 14 October 1992, lot 6
Catalogue Note
Augustin Edouart was to gain a reputation as one of the leading silhouette artists of his generation. His great popularity saw him rise from humble beginnings in the town of Dunkerque, France, to portraying many of the great personalities of his age. His work enabled him to travel extensively outside France. Between 1814 and 1839, for example, he was in England, Ireland and Scotland. Then, in 1839, he moved to the United States, where he worked in New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Detroit. In 1849 he returned to Europe and settled in his native France.
Throughout his career Edouart methodically took duplicates of each of his commissions, storing the silhouettes in albums such as this one. Tragically, the great majority of these books were lost at sea, during a shipwreck off the coast of Guernsey. The present album is therefore extremely rare and is one of only around twenty-five that are known today.
Throughout his career Edouart methodically took duplicates of each of his commissions, storing the silhouettes in albums such as this one. Tragically, the great majority of these books were lost at sea, during a shipwreck off the coast of Guernsey. The present album is therefore extremely rare and is one of only around twenty-five that are known today.
In addition to being rich with many beautifully detailed silhouettes, this album also provides an invaluable record of the identities of many of Edouart’s clients during the period 1833-1834. It is clear that at this time he captured the likenesses of many of the great figures from the world of Irish politics, the military, the aristocracy and the church.