Silhouette of Francis de Haes Janvier

1803

Maker

Attributed to Francis de Haes Janvier (1774-1824)

Measurements

6-3/4 in x 5-1/4 in x 1/2 in; sight 5-5/8 in x 4 in

Materials

Gouache and watercolor on paper

Credit Line

Historic Odessa Foundation

Accession Number

1975.21

Inscription

“Fr D JANVIER – 1803” is written across the bottom.

Provenance

Ex coll. Miss Margaret Janvier Hort

Comments

The profile portrait shows a young man in a high necktie and lapeled jacket.  His hair, ear, and coat texture have been painted in opaque white onto the black-colored paper, a technique also used in a 1798 double silhouette of John and Elizabeth Janvier (accession no. 1975.20; see also Zimmerman A Storied Past, 254-55).  That double silhouette is attributed to Francis de Haes Janvier, whose name is written in pen across the front of this silhouette.  Others have interpreted the name to be the sitter, including Margaret Hort Janvier, who described it on her invoice as “Portrait of Francis de Haes Janvier.”  Another family member, Mamie F. Janvier, described Francis as a prolific portrait artist in a typescript history of the Janvier family (referenced without citing a location for the document in L. Corwin Sharp, “The Janvier Family of Cabinetmakers of Odessa, Delaware” [unpublished master’s thesis, University of Delaware, 1980], 17).  Another drawing attributed to Francis is of John Janvier’s house (Sewell C. Biggs Collection, vol. 2, cat. 221).  It too exhibits several similarities in execution.