Dominic Winter Auctions
Lot 336
* Lewis (T., active 1808-1830). Silhouette portrait of a clergyman in his pulpit, painted three-quarter length profile portrait to right, on card, heightened in gold, of a clergyman standing in a panelled wooden pulpit with a Bible on the tasselled red cushion before him, the latter with a brass double-branched candelabra on one side, signed in pencilled to left just below image 'Taken by T. Lewis', lightly toned, sheet size 25.1 x 18 cm (10 x 7 in), tipped onto a piece of backing card along right-hand edge, together with: Gapp (J., active 1827-1840) . Silhouette portrait of a young lady, scissor cut, full-length profile portrait to left, of a young lady wearing a full-skirted gown and flower-trimmed bonnet, carrying a pair of gloves, a couple of light fox spots, verso with artist's printed yellow trade label 'Mr. Gapp, the Original and only Profilist, for cutting accurate Likenesses, attends Daily at the Third Tower in the centre of the Chain Pier ... ', sheet size 27.9 x 15.3 cm (11 x 6 in), and six other full-length scissor cut portraits similar, one of a lady, the others of gentlemen, including one annotated to upper margin 'Mr. John (?) by Mr. W. Spence. March. 1825', and one showing a gentleman against a monochrome watercolour landscape with country house (Qty: 8)NOTEST. Lewis is a little-known silhouette artist, and his work rarely appears on the market. He was known to have worked for a time in York, and a defining feature of his portraits is the clear delineation of the sitter's eyelash, as here. J. Gapp is notable as the first silhouette cutter to have been known to work on Brighton Chain Pier. He typically portrayed his sitters with objects in their hands - often gloves - and he generally showed sleeves cut to a point on each side of the wrist, both of which features are present here.
