Attributed to
Benjamin Tappan
(1773 - 1857)
William Edwards
1794
Gray wash and graphite on beige paper
Sheet: 12 5/8 x 7 5/8 in. ( 32.1 x 19.4 cm )
Gift of John K. Wright, 1945
Z.2409
Born in Massachusetts, Benjamin Tappan began his life as a printer and engraver. He studied painting with Gilbert Stuart, before turning to law. Tappan later became a judge and a U.S. Senator. He drew this series of twenty-five life-size silhouettes during his early career as an artist. They involved a tracing process, either by outlining a shadow or the sitters’ profiles with a device, after which the artist applied gray wash inside the outlines. Tappan inscribed each silhouette with the sitter’s name.
DescriptionSilhouette: Life-size mask of male subject in right-facing profile; in ink wash within graphite outline on paper with handwritten inscription below.InscribedInscribed at lower right in brown ink: "Mr William Edwards / Northampton Jany 1794"
ClassificationsDRAWINGS
