Silhouette of Susannah Tatlow Golden

c. 1821

Maker

Francis de Haes Janvier (1774-1824)

Measurements

Frame: 6-3/4 in x 5-3/4 in x 5/8 in; sight, 3-3/8 in x 2-5/8 in

Materials

Ink, watercolor, and pencil on paper

Credit Line

Historic Odessa Foundation, gift of Charles Dorman

Accession Number

1994.75

Inscription

"Mrs Susan Golden." is written in ink on the back of the silhouette.

Provenance

According to dealer Randall B. Huber of Douglassville, Pennsylvania, this portrait and its mate (accession no. 1994.74) descended to Margaret Janvier Hort until its sale in 1992.  At her death in 1981, Hort was unmarried and had no children.  The donor acquired it after it was offered unsuccessfully to Winterthur in late September 1993.

Comments

This silhouette is a pair with one of John Golden, husband of the sitter (accession no. 1994.74).  The maker of this silhouette, Francis de Haes Janvier, signed the back of the mate depicting John Golden.  Both have the same wavy name identification of the sitters in handwriting showing the same eccentricities.  Janvier identified this woman as "Susan," although her given name was Susannah (1768-1824).  Susannah was the daughter of Mary Janvier (1742-1772) and Joseph Tatlow (1741-1808).  Mary was Francis's aunt and a sister to his father, Odessa cabinetmaker John Janvier (1749-1801).  Use of the name Susan likely reflected Francis's lifelong familial connection with her.

Given the obvious pairing of the two profile portraits, they likely were made at the time John and Susannah were married in 1821.  Both were about 53 years old at the time.  There is no evidence of earlier marriages or children for either.

The profile portrait shows a silhouette image in black of a woman in a cap and high collar, details of which are rendered in watercolor and a white pigment, possibly gouache--an opaque watercolor.  The black, which looks like a conventional cut-paper representation, is black ink of the type evident on the reverse.  Francis, the artist, had made several similar portraits.  He left his familial home in Odessa after his marriage in 1805 to Mary Thomson (1780-1829) and moved with her to Princeton, New Jersey, where her parents lived.