Augustin Edouart is best known for his full-length cut silhouettes and family conversation pieces complemented sometimes, as here, by sepia watercolour backgrounds. Seated before a window, the stout gentleman is reading a paper with the letters MAGAZI- visible across the top – the paper is also part of the cut work. Behind him stands his wife in a dress with eye-catching demi-gigot sleeves, her hair upswept in a fashionable Apollo knot. Comparison with figures in an archive album of Edouart’s Irish cuttings has revealed the identity of the gentleman to be Mr Stokes.The couple are situated in an elegant drawing room furnished with fringed drapes, a chaise longue and framed paintings. The silhouette is signed along the bottom edge – Aug. Edouart fecit 1834.Records show that Edouart was working in Ireland during 1834 initially in the tourist hot spots of Kinsale and Killarney before moving on to Cork where he was often the guest of the Smith-Barry family of Fota Island. An editori...