The Art of the Silhouette in 19th century Cork now running at the Crawford Gallery includes works by Augustin Edouart and Stephen O’Driscoll. Born in France and a member of Napoleon’s army Edouart moved to England in 1814 and to Cork in 1834. In 1835 his book A Treatise on Silhouette Likenesses was published by Longman and Co., Paternoster Row and by J. Bolster of Cork. He went to America in 1839 and stayed there for ten years. Most of his folios, including duplicates of all his silhouettes, were lost in a shipwreck on his return journey in 1849.
The Cork lithographer Stephen O’Driscoll produced caricature portraits and silhouettes. Silhouettes in black paper were often touched up with gold or paint. Strickland records that he designed and printed the address presented to Queen Victoria on her visit to Cork. A book plate of Rev. James O’Regan in the Franks Collection in the British Museum is signed O’Driscoll, lithog. He died in 1895 aged 70.
The Only Hunting Allowed, c. 1850, pen and ink on paper, 31.5 x 25.3cm, Stephen O’Driscoll, Collection of Crawford Art Gallery.
Angling on the Lee, c.1850, pen and ink on paper, 31.5 x 25.3cm, Stephen O’Driscoll, Collection of Crawford Art Gallery.