At a rural auction in Maine during the summer of 1979, a couple purchased an old handmade box containing a family group of eight silhouettes (Fig. 1). Three of the silhouettes were signed by the artist using the embossed stamp “W. Jennys” (Fig. 2).1 These silhouettes, also called shades or profiles, are an exciting example of the versatility of early American folk portrait painters. They are the work of William Jennys (1774–1859), who with his father, Richard (ca. 1734–ca. 1809), travelled for sixteen years as itinerant portrait painters between 1792/3 and 1808.2 Oil on canvas portraits by Richard or William Jennys (Figs. 3–7) are in numerous museum and private collections. Less well known is the fact that in 1805, William, responding to a new technical revolution as well as his own artistic sensibilities, began preparing silhouettes with a most unusual decorative quality. We are not aware of a previously published family group of silhouettes by this artist.
