This book is a rare and beautiful collection of silhouette portraits created by August Edouart, one of the leading silhouette artists of the 19th century. It includes over 600 portrait cuttings of prominent Americans, ranging from politicians and military leaders to artists and writers. This book is a valuable resource for collectors, art historians, and anyone interested in the art of silhouette portraiture. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

"National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. in association with Princeton University Press, Princeton and Oxford".

"Silhouettes are an increasingly popular form of capturing portraits with a history that goes back hundreds of years. In this unique how-to book, silhouette artist Charles Burns teaches the basic techniques needed for making silhouettes: learning the proportions of a profile, tracing a shadow, reducing an image, drawing and cutting freely, and his own 'natural waves' technique. You'll learn to create scissor-cut portraits, painted silhouettes, hollow-cut silhouettes, silhouettes painted on glass, caricatures, and more, as well as how to use color, appliqué, and three-dimensional effects in creative and innovative ways and how to mount and display your creations."--Page 4 of cover.