H x W x D (frame): 23 3/4 × 31 3/4 × 1 15/16 in. (60.3 × 80.6 × 4.9 cm)
Type:
silhouettes
portraits
Place collected:
Stratford, Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, North and Central America
Date:
ca. 1796
Description:
A framed, hand-cut silhouette of Flora (ca. 1777 - 1815), an enslaved woman in Connecticut. The silhouette was traced at life-size directly from her cast shadow and cut from cream-colored wove paper that has been adhered to thin brown paperboard, likely millboard. It depicts Flora in profile, facing right, with a distinct outline of her hair rendered in spiky tufts, as well as her brow, eyelashes, nose, lips, chin, and neck. At both the top right and bottom right corners, handwritten in brown ink, are the inscriptions "Floras profile." At very bottom right, written in a different hand in brown ink is "Flora / Benjamin." The paper has multiple areas of discoloration and loss, giving the portrait a mottled appearance, and there are several visible crease lines throughout the paperboard.
Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture and National Portrait Gallery, Museum purchase through the American Women’s History Initiative Acquisitions Pool, administered by the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative
