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Description 
The silhouette (also known as a "shade" or "shadow") was an inexpensive and popular form of portraiture from about 1780 to 1850. This example, depicting a game of chess, is probably by Auguste Edouart (1788-1861), a French emigre who cut his first silhouette in the United States in 1839. The players in this silhouette are The Athenaeum's Librarian, William McIlhenney, Jr. (c.1779-1853), who was said to be passionately fond of chess, and his partner is George Spackman (d.1861), a fellow alumnus of The University of Pennsylvania.
Silhouette -Chess at the Athenaeum of Philadelphia
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