Augustin Amant C.F. Edouart Paintings

Augustin Amant Constant Fidèle Edouart, commonly known as Augustin Edouart, was a French-born artist known for his work in the medium of silhouette portraiture. Born on April 10, 1789, in Dunkirk, France, Edouart initially pursued a military career before becoming a full-time artist. His life and career spanned a period of significant social and political change, including the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars.

In the early 1820s, Edouart discovered his talent for creating silhouettes, which are profile images traditionally cut from black card and mounted on a light background. This art form was particularly popular before the advent of photography as a means of capturing likenesses quickly and relatively inexpensively.

Edouart's skill and attention to detail quickly earned him a reputation as one of the finest silhouette artists of his time. He developed a unique method of cutting which allowed him to produce very delicate and precise likenesses. Unlike many of his contemporaries, who often traced shadows cast on paper, Edouart worked directly from observing his subjects, insisting that his portraits were 'likenesses' rather than mere 'shadows'.

He traveled extensively, working in France, the United Kingdom, and the United States, where he created silhouettes of many prominent figures of the time, including politicians, nobility, and celebrities. Edouart kept meticulous records of his works, including a collection of folios containing duplicates of the thousands of silhouettes he created, which he called his 'folios of duplicates'.

Unfortunately, the latter part of Edouart's life was marked by difficulty. After a shipwreck in 1849, he lost most of his work, which was en route to the United States. This event, coupled with the rise of photography, led to a decline in his career. He spent his later years in Guernsey, where he continued to work, but he never regained his former success.

Augustin Edouart died on June 14, 1861, in Guernsey. Despite the challenges he faced later in life, his work remains an important contribution to the art of silhouette portraiture. His surviving silhouettes and his detailed records provide a fascinating insight into the people and the times in which he lived.