Harrington Antiques has dated this piece to the 1800s.
Augustin Edouart was one of the most famous silhouette artists of the nineteenth century. Born in Dunkerque, he left France in 1814, and established himself in London, where he began his career making portraits from hair. In 1825, he began work as a silhouette portraitist, taking full-length likenesses in profile by cutting out black paper with scissors. Edouart spent fifteen years touring England and in 1829 arrived in Edinburgh. He remained there for three years, during which time he produced some five thousand likenesses. His sitters included the exiled French royal family of Charles X, and many leading figures of Scottish society, including writer Sir Walter Scott and artist William Dyce.
The sitter, William Saurin (1757 – 11 February 1839), was an Irish barrister, Crown official and politician. Augustin Edouart is documented to have been working in Ireland in 1834, the year which this portrait is dated. A Dictionary Of Irish Artists by William Strickland (1913) reads:
"After a stay of about a year in Dublin Edouart went to Cork and took rooms at 77 Patrick Street. From thence he visited Killarney where he took one hundred portraits, and kinsdale where he did one hundred and thirty-two. The 'Cork Evening Herald' (December 1834) informed its readers that 'Monsieur Edouart, the celebrated, and, we may say, unique genius in his art is doing wonders at the spirted town of Kinsdale. The number of likenesses he has already taken is surprising for so small a place'. He next visited Fermoy where he took one hundred and fifty-one portraits; Bandon, one hundred and ninety-seven portraits; and Youghal, one hundred and twelve portraits. He also visited Mallow, Limerick and other places. In Limerick, he did twenty-three portraits of inmates of the County Asylum."
The sitter himself, the Right Honourable William Saurin, was Attorney-General for Ireland from 1807 to 1822, and for much of that period, he acted as the effective head of the Irish Government. He was unusual among Irish Law Officers in that he was never appointed a judge, nor wished to become one. As an Ulster Protestant, and a determined opponent of Catholic Emancipation, he incurred the bitter enmity of Daniel O'Connell (the famed political leader of Ireland's Roman Catholic majority), who called him "the mortal foe", and worked for years to have him removed from office.
William Saurin was described as small and decidedly "French" in appearance (hence O'Connell's gibe about his being a "transplanted Frenchman"); his face was dominated by shaggy eyebrows, under which his black eyes had a 'piercing but not unkindly expression'. His private life was blameless and despite his anti-Catholic bias, his character was described as honourable and affectionate.
The work is finely executed as one would expect, with intricate details of the room and landscape masterfully depicted with the graze of a pencil. The sitter, William Saurin, sits boldly to the fore holding an open book.
The whole is housed in a maple frame.
Dimensions (framed):-
Height: 32.25cm
Width: 23cm
Height: 1.75cm
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Harrington Antiques has dated this piece to the 1800s.
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Augustin Edouart (1789-1861) - Portrait of the Right Honourable William Saurin, 1834.
