Mrs. Marshall (1807-?)

1824

Place madeLondon, England, Europe

Black ink and metallic pigment on plaster

Framed: 5 1/4 × 4 3/4 × 1/2 in. (13.3 × 12.1 × 1.3 cm)
Image: 2 3/8 in. (6 cm)

Gift of Mrs. J. Insley Blair

1942.563

Instead of paper as a support, John Field and his mentor and early partner John Miers, who claimed he could paint a silhouette in three minutes, used plaster for this trio rendered in black ink with highlights in metallic pigments, sometimes referred to as “bronzing.” Field began his career as an assistant to Miers, the most successful profilist of eighteenth-century London. By 1794, Field was responsible for most of the profiles produced at Miers’s studio, and they formed a partnership. In 1830, Miers & Field was dissolved, and Field worked at the same address with his son, Henry William Field. Field not only produced silhouettes but also filled sketchbooks with landscape drawings and painted landscapes, some on a plaster surface. He was an unusual silhouettist in that he was also a member of the Royal Academy, exhibiting both silhouettes and landscapes.

DescriptionBust of youthful female subject in left-facing profile; bronzed image on white ground; rectangular black lacquered frame with oval window.

Markingshandwritten in pencil: on back: "75849 B" handwritten in ink: on back: "Mrs. Marshall Aged 17-- / taken November 1824" and "Label 13" printed: on back: "Miers & Field / 111, STRAND, LONDON. / opposite Exeter Change. / Profile Painters, Jewellers, Seal Engravers, / and Manufacturers of every description of Miniature Frames, Cases &c. / Continue to execute their long approved Profile Likenesses / [etc.]"

ClassificationsDRAWINGS