Mrs. Gouverneur Morris (Anne Cary Randolph, 1774–1837)

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

Mrs. Gouverneur Morris (Anne Cary Randolph, 1774–1837)

1831

Place madeGlasgow, Scotland

Black prepared paper cut-out, laid on heavy beige paper with lithographed background

Image (height): 8 1/8 in. (20.6 cm)
Framed: 14 1/8 in. × 11 in. × 1 in. (35.9 × 27.9 × 2.5 cm)

Z.2341

Édouart executed the widow Morris’s silhouette in 1831, early in his career in Glasgow, Scotland. It demonstrates his innovations, among them the full-length figure rather than a bust-length profile, a detailed attention to costume and accoutrements rich in references to material culture, and a lithographic background. Anne Cary Randolph married statesman and penman of the U.S. Constitution Gouverneur Morris in 1809, and was widowed in 1816. Like many of his silhouettes, Édouart dated and signed this example using the Latin “fecit,” meaning “he made,” to bolster his connection with artists of the past and to suggest that silhouettes, at least his profiles, were worthy of the same status.

DescriptionSilhouette: Full-length female figure in right-facing profile; black paper cut-out mounted on beige paper with lithographed view of domestic interior; rectangular wooden frame.

SignedSigned and inscribed at lower left in brown ink: "Aug.st Edouart fecit 1831"

InscribedInscription on verso: "Mrs. Richard Morris/Glasgow 1832"; inscription on frame backing: "Mrs. Gouverneur Morris / Cut by Edouart in Glasgow / in 1831. Widowed in 1816. / Formerly Anne Carey Randolph / of Virginia. / Morris had been Ambassador / before their marriage in 1809."

ClassificationsDRAWINGS