Artist/Maker Augustin Amant Constant Fidèle Edouart (French, 1789 – 1861)

Amy Lovett Cornell (1782-1849)

1840

Black prepared paper cut-out, laid on card with collaged paper

Image (height): 6 1/8 in. (15.6 cm)
Framed: 10 3/4 × 7 3/4 × 1/2 in. (27.3 × 19.7 × 1.3 cm)

Z.2523

Édouart depicted the three family members, Robert C. Cornell (d. 1844), Amy Lovett Cornell (1782–1849) and George James Cornell (ca. 1821–1857), in separate silhouettes: the parents seated and facing the same direction instead of as pendants, and the son standing, holding a high hat. Mr. Cornell, elected an alderman of New York’s fifth ward in 1834, holds a lithographed newspaper, The New York Times, to demonstrate his worldliness, while Mrs. Cornell’s literacy is underlined by the book she holds. All three have inscriptions collaged below their silhouettes. The Cornell’s only child, George James Cornell, became a lawyer and represented the fourth district of New York County in the New York State Assembly in 1849.

DescriptionSilhouette: Full-length female figure in left-facing profile; black paper cut-out mounted on cream paper; on verso of cream card, window cut out to reveal inscription on verso of black cut-out; rectangular black-painted wood frame.

MarkingsLabel pasted below image inscribed in brown ink: "Mrs. A. Cornell / 15th. Janry" (autograph of sitter)

InscribedInscribed in brown ink on blue paper of silhouette verso read through window of card: "Mrs. A. Cornell / Jany. 15. 1840"

ClassificationsDRAWINGS