Comment on How much did photography "stole" painter jobs ?

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ndru@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

Just to add some cool etymology to your reply: the word silhouette comes from a type of affordable portrait made by quickly painting or cutting out a persons profile in black paper.

The word silhouette is derived from the name of Étienne de Silhouette, a French finance minister who, in 1759, was forced by France’s credit crisis during the Seven Years’ War to impose severe economic demands upon the French people, particularly the wealthy.[3] Because of de Silhouette’s austere economies, his name became synonymous with anything done or made cheaply and so with these outline portraits.[4][5] Prior to the advent of photography, silhouette profiles cut from black card were the cheapest way of recording a person’s appearance.[6][7]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silhouette

This is also an interesting article on the subject of pre-photographic portraiture: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait_miniature

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