Black silhouette artist and entrepreneur Moses Williams in early America
Moses Williams was an African-American profile cutter in the household of world-renown portrait artist and first museum entrepreneur Charles Willson Peale, in the early 19th century. Moses was initially a slave, the child of slaves who were given to Peale possibly as payment for a portrait. Moses was treated as one of the family, and then manumitted (freed) by Peale in 1802. Moses showed extraordinary skill at creating profile portraits
Originally published in Jan 2013
Moses Williams was an African-American profile cutter in the household of world-renown portrait artist and first museum entrepreneur Charles Willson Peale, in the early 19th century. Moses was initially a slave, the child of slaves who were given to Peale possibly as payment for a portrait. Moses was treated as one of the family, and then manumitted (freed) by Peale in 1802. Moses showed extraordinary skill at creating profile portraits with the newly invented physiognotrace ("face-tracing") machine.
At this time period, the word "silhouettes" to represent profile portraits had not entered into the common language, and would not enter the language for 20 to 30 years, depending on the region.
Read more about Moses Williams in this simple but informative teacher's guide at the Philadelphia Museum. Enjoy the images of Moses' cut profiles, and view the early profile machine in the style that Moses would have used in the early years of the 1800s. Read carefully this description of cutting profiles in the article:
"Notice the intricate details in the profiles such as the tufts of hair, neckties, bows, and subtle differences in the shapes of noses, chins, and lips. Unlike drawing or painting where an artist can erase lines or paint over unwanted details, there is little room for error when cutting profiles."
The article was describing Moses Williams' profile-cutting using the machine that traced the face... but think of the skill used by Silhouettes By Hand for creating these details freehand with scissors (see photo below)
A little boy excitedly sits for his first silhouette profile portrait, with Silhouettes By Hand, at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Another article from Harvard describes how successful was Moses' work:
"[T]he silhouette machine was far from perfect. As Rembrandt Peale’s description suggests, many tracings had to be thrown away. Extant silhouettes made at the Peale museum and preserved at the Library Company of Philadelphia show the corrections Williams had to make to the mechanical tracings. In the end, the success of Peale’s silhouettes had more to do with the Williams’ cutting and correcting skills than with Peale’s machine."
For deeper interest, there is an academic paper viewable online that features Moses Williams and his relationship to profiles, art, profession, and the Peale Family.
Thank you to the American Philosophical Society for allowing the public into such wide thoughts, and to Dr. Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw for the deep research into Moses Williams, profiles, and the physionotrace machine as used in the early 19th century.
Lauren Muney named in Renowned Traditional Artist Directory
Silhouettes By Hand's Lauren Muney has been named to the Early American Life Magazine's Directory of Traditional Crafts for both 2013 and 2014, an honor bestowed on a handful of artisans who work in traditional media, styles, and crafts. The Directory presents a selection of the best historically informed handwork in America today.
Silhouettes By Hand's Lauren Muney has been named to the Early American Life Magazine's Directory of Traditional Crafts for both 2013 and 2014. The Directory of Traditional American Crafts is an honor bestowed on a handful of artisans who work in traditional media, styles, and crafts. The Directory presents a selection of the best historically informed handwork in America today.
A jury of museum curators, university professors, antiques dealers and collectors screens each entrant's work. The work is reviewed and rated by experts working in the area of a particular craft, and the cumulative judgment of each of these jurors leads to the selection of a particular artist's work to be included in the Directory.
The Directory of Traditional American Crafts is a special listing that appears in the August issues of Early American Life, a national magazine focusing on architecture, decorative arts, period style, and social history from colonial times through the mid-19th Century.
The Directory has been used for nearly three decades by curators at living history museums, owners of traditional homes, and motion picture producers to find artisans to make period-appropriate furnishings and accessories for displays, collections, and use.
The experts—curators from such prestigious institutions as the National Trust, Museums of Colonial Williamsburg, Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, Winterthur, Historic Deerfield, Old Sturbridge Village, Hancock Shaker Village, Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, and the Frontier Culture Museum as well as antiques dealers, independent scholars, and professional instructors—selected the top craftspeople working with traditional tools and techniques for the magazine’s 28th annual Directory.
The work is judged anonymously, and jurors rate the work in the Directory at the Master level or higher. “The judges look for authentic design and workmanship, whether the piece is a faithful reproduction or the artisan’s interpretation of period style,” said Tess Rosch, publisher of Early American Life. “Scholarship, as well as use of period tools and techniques, is particularly valued in this competition.”
One goal of the Directory is to help preserve traditional handcrafts, part of our culture that is rapidly being lost in the digital age. Many of these skills were passed down from master to apprentice for hundreds of years, but now few new people choose to learn and master them. “If our traditional arts are lost, we have forgotten a part of who we are as Americans,” Rosch said.
The August issue of Early American Life, on newsstands in mid-June, lists all of the artisans selected for the Directory as well as contact information for those wanting to own their work. The Directory layout features lush color photos of many of these artworks photographed at ppopular museum complexes around the United States. A framed Silhouettes By Hand silhouette was photographed for the 2014 Directory, photographed at Old Sturbridge Village museum.
“The Directory is a source for collectors and historic museums eager to own fine, handcrafted, period-accurate objects and also a means of supporting those who perpetuate the art forms that are such an important part of our nation’s heritage,” Rosch said. To learn more about Early American Life, for subscription information, or to purchase a copy, visit www.EarlyAmericanLife.com.