An Officer

Painted on plaster, this silhouette depicts an officer in a frilled chemise, buttoned coat and fantail hat with a cockade. The blunter than usual point at the back of the bust-line termination suggests this profile was painted by ‘X’, an as yet unidentified artist who worked in John Miers and John Field between 1791 and 1801 when the studio’s order book was overflowing.

The silhouette is housed with a verre églomisé border in the original pearwood mounted rectangular papier-mâché frame with an unbroken trade label no. 11 (‘burnished gold’) on the reverse. There is inevitable dust under the glass and a small loss (about 13mm) to the inner pearwood surround at the top.