A Harrogate Gentleman

A silhouette by a rarely seen artist whose work is known from only a small handful of extant silhouettes. Reverse painted on flat glass in solid black with thinned pigment to create transparency for the shirt frill and a needle used to scratch detail. Backed with a second piece of glass coated in gesso to give a greenish-grey hue. Original brass-faced frame.

Thomas Johnson was working towards the end of the eighteenth century in Harrogate, a popular North Yorkshire spa town where visitors came to take the waters. He would therefore have been guaranteed a fashionable clientèle.