Charlotte "Lotte" Reiniger

       Charlotte "Lotte" Reiniger (June 2, 1899 – June 19, 1981) was a German silhouette animator and film director. She was born in Berlin-Charlottenburg, German Empire, on June 2, 1899. As a child, she was fascinated with the Chinese art of silhouette puppetry, even building her own puppet theater so that she could put on shows for her family and friends.

      As a teenager, Reiniger fell in love with cinema, first with the films of Georges Méliès for their special effects, then the films of actor and director Paul Wegener, known today for The Golem (1920). In 1915, the young woman attended a lecture by Wegener that focused on the fantastic possibilities of animation.

      After a bit of persuasion, she convinced her parents to enroll her in the acting group Wegener belonged to, the Theater of Max Reinhardt. In an attempt to attract the attention of her distant and very-busy hero, she started making silhouette portraits of the various actors around her. This had its desired effect, and soon she was making elaborate title cards for Wegener's films, many of which featured silhouettes.

 

      In 1918, Reiniger animated wooden rats and created the animated intertitles for Wegener's Der Rattenfänger von Hameln (The Pied Piper of Hamelin). The success of this work got her admitted into the Institut für Kulturforschung (Institute for Cultural Research), an experimental animation and shortfilm studio. It was here that she met her future creative partner and husband (from 1921), Carl Koch, as well as other avant-garde artists such as Hans Cürlis, Bertolt Brecht, Berthold Bartosch, and others.

      The first film Reiniger directed was Das Ornament des verliebten Herzens (The Ornament of the Enamoured Heart, 1919), a short piece involving two lovers and an ornament that reflected their moods. The film was very well received. She made six short films during the following few years, all produced and photographed by her husband. These were interspersed with advertising films (the Julius Pinschewer advertising agency invented ad films and sponsored a large number of abstract animators during the Weimar period) and special effects for various feature films – most famously a silhouette falcon for a dream sequence in Part One of Fritz Lang's Die Nibelungen). During this period she became the centre of a large group of ambitious German animators, such as Bartosch, Hans Richter, Walter Ruttmann, and Oskar Fischinger.

      In 1923, a unique opportunity came her way. She was approaced by Louis Hagen, who had bought a large quantity of raw film stock as an investment to fight the spiraling inflation of the period, who asked her to do a feature length animated film. The result was The Adventures of Prince Achmed, completed in 1926, the first animated feature film, with a plot that is a pastiche of stories from One Thousand and One Nights. Although it failed to a find a distributor for almost a year, once premiered in Paris (thanks to the support of Jean Renoir), it then became a critical and popular success.

      Reiniger anticipated Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks by a decade by devising the first multi-plane camera for certain effects. In addition to Reiniger's silhouette actors, Prince Achmed boasted dream-like backgrounds by Walter Ruttmann (her partner in the Die Nibelungen sequence) and a symphonic score by Wolfgang Zeller. Additional effects were added by Carl Koch and Berthold Bartosch.

      The success of Prince Achmed meant that Lotte Reiniger would not need a stroke of luck to make a second feature. Doktor Dolittle und seine Tiere (Doctor Dolittle and his Animals, 1928) was based on the first of the English children's books by Hugh Lofting. The score of this three-part film this time was composed by Kurt Weill, Paul Hindemith and Paul Dessau.

      A year later, Reiniger co-directed her first live-action film with Rochus Gliese, Die Jagd nach dem Glück (The Pursuit of Happiness, 1929), a tale about a shadow-puppet troupe. The film starred Jean Renoir and Bertold Bartosch and included a 20-minute silhouette performance by Reiniger.  Unfortunately, the film was completed just as sound came to Germany, and release of the film was delayed until 1930 to dub in voices by different actors – the result being so unsuccessful as to ruin any enjoyment of the film.

      Reiniger also attempted to make a third animated feature, based on Maurice Ravel's opera L'enfant et les sortilèges (The Child and the Bewitched Things, 1925), but found herself unable to clear the rights for the music with an unexpected number of copyright holders. She worked with British poet, critic, and musician Eric Walter White on several films, and he wrote the early book-length essay on her work – Walking Shadows: An Essay on Lotte Reiniger's Silhouette Films, (London: Leonard and Virginia Woolf, 1931).

      With the rise of the Nazi Party, Reiniger and Koch decided to emigrate (both were involved in left-wing politics), but found that no other country would give them permanent visas. As a result, the couple spent the years 1933–1944 moving from country to country, staying as long as travel visas would allow. They cooperated with Jean Renoir in Paris and Luchino Visconti in Rome. Somehow, they still managed to make 12 films during this period, the best-known being Carmen (1933) and Papageno (1935), both based on popular operas (Bizet's Carmen and Mozart's Die Zauberflöte). When World War II commenced they stayed with Visconti in Rome until 1944, then moved back to Berlin.

       In 1949, Reiniger and Koch moved to London, where she made a few short advertising films for the Ground Film Unit and John Grierson's General Post Office Film Unit. While she was living in London in the early 1950s she became friends with "Freddie" Bloom, who was the first director of the National Deaf Children's Society, and asked her to design a logo for the new charity. Reiniger responded by cutting out 4 children running up a hill. Bloom was amazed at her skill with the scissors – in a few moments she created about four different silhouettes of the children from black paper. The logo was used until the 1990s, when a design company was invited to revamp the design. The result was a very minor modification but the new design was also dropped a few years later.

      With Louis Hagen Jr. (the son of Reiniger's financier of Prince Achmed in Potsdam) they founded Primrose Productions in 1953 and, over the next two years, produced more than a dozen short silhouette films based on Grimms' Fairy Tales for BBC and Telecasting America. Reiniger also provided illustrations for the 1953 book King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table by Roger Lancelyn Green.

      Reiniger was awarded the Filmband in Gold of the Deutscher Filmpreis in 1972; in 1979 she received the Great Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. Reiniger died in Dettenhausen, Germany, on June 19, 1981, at the age of 82.

• Lotte Reiniger biography and selection of works at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
• Lotte Reiniger at the Internet Movie Database
• "Born to Be Wild", a biographical excerpt from Women and Animation, a Compendium (edited by Jayne Pilling) focusing on Reiniger's childhood; part of the British Film Institute's "Drawn to be Wild" website^{[dead link]}
• "Lotte Reiniger's Silhouettes" by Abhijit Ghosh Dasitidar
• "Lotte Reiniger pictures and photos", listal.com

The Adventures of Prince Achmed

Title card from the 1926 animated film  
The Adventures of Prince Achmed

      The Adventures of Prince Achmed is a 1926 German animated fairytale film by Lotte Reiniger. It is the oldest surviving animated feature film; two earlier ones were made in Argentina by Quirino Cristiani, but they are considered lost. The Adventures of Prince Achmed features a silhouette animation technique Reiniger had invented which involved manipulated cutouts made from cardboard and thin sheets of lead under a camera. The technique she used for the camera is similar to Wayang shadow puppets, though hers were animated frame by frame, not manipulated in live action. The original prints featured color tinting.

      Several famous avant-garde animators worked on this film with Lotte Reiniger. These included Walter Ruttmann, Berthold Bartosch, and Carl Koch.

      The story is based on elements taken from the collection 1001 Arabian Nights, specifically The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanou featured in Andrew Lang's The Blue Fairy Book. With the assistance of Aladdin, the Witch of the Fiery Mountain, and a magic horse, the title character reclaims the magic lamp and conquers the African sorcerer. The culminating scene in the film is the battle between "die Hexe" (the witch) and "der afrikanische Zauberer" (the African sorcerer), in which those characters undergo fabulous transformations. All is well in the end: Aladdin marries Dinarsade (Achmed's sister and daughter of the Caliph); Achmed marries Pari Banu; the African sorcerer is defeated; and the foursome return to the Caliph's kingdom.

       No original German nitrate prints of the film are known to still exist. While the original film featured color tinting, prints available just prior to the restoration had all been in black and white. Working from surviving nitrate prints, German and British archivists restored the film during 1998 and 1999 including reinstating the original tinted image by using the Desmet method.

• Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed at the Internet Movie Database
• Detailed notes on the film, including Lotte Reiniger's description of its history (PDF)
• DVD Times Review
• The Adventures of Prince Achmed (Review)

Silhouettes by a Swedish Artist

Gus Walle. Maker of
Silhouettes. (self portrait)

With His Little Shears Mr. Walle is Making Portraits of Well Known Men and Women.

      Any one who wants to call Gus Walle a psaligraphist can do so with impunity. When you can apply a name like that to a man and not have anything happen to you there must be some good reason for it. In this case the reason is that a psaligraphist is what Mr. Walle really and truly is and he is proud of it.

      The art of cutting silhouettes, or psaligraphy, is much more practised abroad than in this country. In Stockholm, where Mr. Walle lived before he came to America, there have been several masters of it. His own mother was an accomplished manipulator of the little shears, and he himself, watching her from the time he was a child and imitating her for his own amusement, has become so expert that his swiftness and cleverness are astonishing.

       Although Mr. Walle might stand for being called a psaligraphist, he does not describe himself by any such high sounding name. But he will tell you more or less about the origin of the art. He says it was carried to a high degree of perfection by the Greeks. The monochrome figures on Etruscan vases are really silhouettes. Later the art fell into disuse until the middle of the eighteenth century. From that time it was very much in vogue until the invention of photography drove it out again.

      Many of the old time silhouette makers couldn't have cut a profile freehand any more than they could have walked on air. They placed a person so that his shadow would be cast on the wall, then they traced this and reduced it to a smaller size. Some would have the shadow cast on ground glass and trace it on that. All kinds of apparatus were devised for copying the profile mechanically, but they were not eminently successful.  

Mlle Gaby Deslys

     This young man from Stockholm doesn't bother with paraphernalia. He has a pair of scissors about four inches long, three inches of that length being handle. They look as if they might have been intended for surgical use they are so slender. Mr. Walle has been using them for sixteen years and he thinks he would almost have to give up his profession if anything happened to them.

Mr. Walle's Way of Work.

      When he makes a silhouette he does not post the person against the light or against a black cloth or anything of that sort. He simply tells his subject to sit on a rather high office stool. He himself sits on a chair only a few feet away.

      There is only one point about which he is at all particular; he prefers to have the person's right side toward him. A great many persons are inclined to protest about this. they have been informed by photographers that their left is their best side and they want to turn that one to the silhouette artist.

      There really is a great difference between the sides of almost every face; but the variation is in the modelling, the shape of the eyes, the way the hair grows, the corners of the mouth, the lift of the eyebrows and so on. When one comes to think of it, prompted thereto by the silhouette men, one realizes that the outline of the head is the same whichever way you take it.

      The reason the artist in this case wants his subject's right side is because it is easier for him to cut that way. He invariably begins at the bottom of the paper at what will be the front of the picture when finished. He cuts every detail as he goes, the buttons on the coat, the lace jabot: everything is reproduced and with astonishing rapidity. He scarcely looks at the paper his cutting. His hands move as surely as those of a musician who is absolutely familiar with the keys.

small boy

      Yet all the time he is turning and twisting the paper, making little fluttering motions with it as he outlines the lace, slicing boldly in for the curve of the throat and sweeping around the top of the head as freely and easily as if he were merely writing his name. How it happens to come out all right in the end is a mystery to the bystander.

      You might think he would need to block out in some general proportions what he is going to make. Otherwise the head might be out of proportion or the outline might wander dangerously before it had climbed the peak of the topmost feather on the hat and started on the backward descent. But he takes absolutely no precautions to insure proportion. He seems to have instinctive sense of it and the little scissors shear their way unhesitatingly and unerringly.

      If the features to be reproduced are bold as many as six thicknesses of paper can be cut at once, thus making six copies of the same silhouette. The number of thicknesses that can be cut simultaneously diminishes, according to the delicacy of the features and the size of the silhouette to be made, until only a single one can be cut at a time.

Big Silhouettes Hardest. 

      The very large silhouettes are the hardest to make, partly because there are more details of outline to be reproduced and partly because it is not quite as easy to visualize the large picture and "feel" it as a whole. Mr. Walle has made silhouettes with heads that were more than twelve inches in diameter.

      On the other hand he makes many full length silhouettes in which the head is only half an inch long. When he makes one of these full length figures he begins with the toe of the shoe and cuts his way up the front of the figure and down the back without a pause except perhaps for an umbrella or cane or chair.

Mrs. John Jacob Astor

      All these details are cut just as they come instead of being cut by themselves and are pasted on separately. Another hard thing to do is to cut a row of persons to be mounted on the same card. They are posed one after another and all cut from the same sheet of paper so that they fit together with only a narrow line of white between.

      At a recent dinner party where Mr. Walle was engaged he made a row of heads of all the guests, with the dinner table suggested below them. In addition he made three copies fo separate silhouettes of each individual present, including some of the Metropolitan Opera House artists who sang after the dinner.

      Silhouettes of women are as a rule more interesting to Mr. Walle to make because there is so much more variety in their hair and dress. Men's features seem more striking at first thought, but they are not always so by any means.

      While the nose is of course the most prominent feature in a profile, it isn't necessarily the one which gives the most characteristic line. The curve under the nose and of the upper lip is one of the most important sections of a profile. The chin and the line underneath it are also important. In fact not only every detail of outline but also the angle at which the silhouette is finally mounted on the card is significant.

      After the cutting of the outline is competed the artist begins to make what seem like the most careless slashes into it. As likely as not he cuts the head off entirely. In this way he secures the white lines which break up the black and add detail and character.

      Some of the paper he uses is already gummed on one side. He has a pad which he wets and on which he then lays the pieces of the silhouette gum side down. When this gum is softened he takes the paper up with a penknife blade and lays it on the card. This must be done right at the first try or the whole thing is spoiled. It cannot be moved even a fraction of an inch or the card will look soiled.

      If the head has been cut off the silhouette is placed first on the card. Then the rest is added, leaving just a tine line of white to indicate the collar. The paper is smoothed down carefully and the work is done. For rapidity, accuracy and delicacy it is an astonishing performance. The Sun, May 5, 1912.

More Silhouettes by Gus Walle coming soon.

Josephus Hyde And His Sinful Pride

Josephus loved to strut, and cry:

"No boy in town is rich as I!"

And vainly both his aunties tried

To break him of such foolish pride.

His little playmates, in delight,

Made fun of him with all their might,

While he pretended not to see

Or sneered at them unpleasantly.

At length misfortunes came, -- and left

Josephus of his wealth bereft!

He made his way, -- but first of all

He learned: -- Pride goes before a fall!

by Elizabeth Kirkman Fitzhugh.

Authors And Artists Starring In Latest Silhouette Movies

Scene from Gilbert-Bray movie, "Inbad the Sailor."
 Left to right: J. Bryant, Francis Ramsey,
May Wilson Preston, Connie Neell.

      New York, Feb. 16. 1916 --There's something new under the sun, or rather behind the spotlight--the silhouette movie.

      It has darkened the lives not only of some movie actors, but of Irvin Cobb, Owen and Mrs. Johnson, James Montgomery and Mrs. Gibson, Edgar Selwyn, Margaret Mayo Selwyn, May Wilson Preston and her husband James, and among others, Inbad the Sailor hero of the first silouette movie.

      The inventors, C. Allen Gilbert, illustrator, and J. H. Bray, cartoonist, induced these notables to go into the movies when they were lured to the Gilbert Bray studio.

      There the authors and artists and their wives or husbands, moving in profile across the stage, were thrown into bold relief against a white background, and their movements recorded by a motion picture camera.

      Author Cobb acted a brief skit, entitled "Preparedness," with the aid of a toy gun, an American flag and his vast proportions. 

      Illustrator Flagg acted Flagg the Harlequin, since his costume was for something besides exposing his flagstaff figure. 

      One lady illustrator, wearing one of last summer's silhouette gowns, upon learning she would illustrate herself if she appeared between the spotlights and the curtain, sat down in a corner and not even the moving picture of "Inbad the Sailor" could move her.

"If Pets, Why Not Useful Ones?"

By Percy Shaw.

I wonder how 'twould be if cows

And hens and ducks were household pets,

And banished far were growls and meows,

As witness in these silhouettes!

Mere man would look aghast no doubt

And voice a thousand vain regrets;

But though these ladies ne'er come out,

They look well in these silhouettes.

"The Lion and the Mouse Fable" in Silhouettes

The Lion and the Mouse

      "A hungry mouse notices a tree full of fruit and attempts to reach the fruit by climbing up a big rock, but to his surprise, the rock is actually a sleeping lion. The angry lion forgives the little mouse and helps him to reach the fruit. The lion laughs at the mouse when he promises to one day return the favor. However, when the lion gets caught in a thicket of vines and the mouse comes to his rescue, the lion realizes that even the small can be a big help."

The Pied Piper Silhouettes by Kathy Grimm

       I have redrawn my variations of silhouette's originally designed by Lotte Reiniger and Paul Wegener for their film "The Pied Piper of Hamelin," in 1918. You can download these here, read the Terms of Use.

Traditional Paper Angels

      The customary tradition of cutting paper angels has been around since I was a tot in Sunday school. I will keep an up-to-date listing of links to a variety of paper angels for those of my students who may wish to add a few new versions of these Christmas visitors to their mantle or tree.

Links to paper angel patterns and ideas:

1. A paper plate paper angel craft 
2. Paper Rosette Angels
3. A basic paper angel from Instructables
4. A paper quilled angel
5. My Marie Angel Paper Doll
6. Starry Christmas Angels
7. Marisa's Paper Angels
8. Cute cut and assemble paper angel from Usborne
9. An angel made from books pages
10. New Year Angel Paper Doll
11. paper ornaments by Charlotte Lyons
12. Very sophisticated paper angels from Carol

Where does the word "silhouette" come from?

      Étienne de Silhouette (July 8, 1709 – 1767) was a French Controller-General of Finances under Louis XV.

      Sometimes said to be the next Niccolò Machiavelli, he was born in Limoges where his father Arnaud de Silhouette (from Biarritz, the modern Standard Basque form of the name would be Zuloeta) was sent. He studied finances and economics and spent a year in London learning from the economy of Britain.

Children learning to draw silhouettes in the 1800s

      He translated into French several works by Alexander Pope, Henry Bolingbroke, William Warburton's The Alliance between Church and State, (1736) as Dissertations sur l'Union de la Religion, de la Morale, et de la Politique (1742) and Baltasar Gracián's El político. The party of the Prince of Condé used his translations from English authors to criticize him but the protection of Madame Pompadour awarded him the position of Controller-General in 4 March 1759, the most extensive of all the administrative positions and a very unstable one. His task was to curb the running deficit and strengthen the finances for the Seven Years' War against Britain (1754–1763). Public opinion preferred his 72-million-livres public loan to the ferme générale, an outsourced tax collection system. He also reduced spending by the royal house and revised pensions. To favour free trade, he eliminated some taxes and established new ones operating on a unified French market.

      De Silhouette forecasted a bleak budget for 1760: income of 286 million livres compared to expenses of 503 million livres, including at least 94 million in debt service. In an attempt to restore the kingdom's finances by the English method of taxing the rich and privileged (nobility and church were exempt from taxes in the Ancien Régime). de Silhouette devised the "general subvention," i.e., taxes on external signs of wealth (doors and windows, farms, luxury goods, servants, profits). On 26 October, he took the war measure of ordering the melting down of goldware and silverware. He was criticized by the nobility including Voltaire, who thought his measures, though theoretically beneficial, were not suitable for war time and the French political situation.

      On 20 November 1759, after eight months in the position, he left the court and retired to a chateau at Bry-sur-Marne, where he set about improving it. After his death in 1767, his nephew and heir Clément de Laage completed that work.

      Étienne de Silhouette's short tenure as finance chief caused him to become an object of ridicule and his penny-pinching manner led the term à la Silhouette to be applied to things perceived as cheap.

      During this period an art form of growing popularity was a shadow profile cut from black paper. It provided a simple and inexpensive alternative for those who could not afford more decorative and expensive forms of portraiture, such as painting or sculpture. Those who considered it cheap attached the word "silhouette" to it. The name stuck and so today we know it as a silhouette.

Who Was Johann Kaspar Lavater?

Johann Kaspar Lavater's silhouette machine.

The German scientist, Johann Kaspar Lavater, (1741-1801) developed a "scientific" method for taking accurate silhouette portraits. He was also known as a  poet and physiognomist and was born at Zürich on the 15th of November 1741. He was educated at the gymnasium of his native town, where J. J. Bodmer and J. J. Breitinger were among his teachers. When barely one-and-twenty he greatly distinguished himself by denouncing, in conjunction with his friend, the painter H. Fuseli, an iniquitous magistrate, who was compelled to make restitution of his ill-gotten gains. In 1769 Lavater took orders, and officiated till his death as deacon or pastor in various churches in his native city. His oratorical fervour and genuine depth of conviction gave him great personal influence; he was extensively consulted as a casuist, and was welcomed with demonstrative enthusiasm in his numerous journeys through Germany. His mystical writings were also widely popular. Scarcely a trace of this influence has remained, and Lavater's name would be forgotten but for his work on physiognomy, Physiognomische Fragmente zur Beförderung der Menschenkenntnis und Menschenliebe (1775-1778). The fame even of this book, which found enthusiastic admirers in France and England, as well as in Germany, rests to a great extent upon the handsome style of publication and the accompanying illustrations. It left, however, the study of physiognomy (q.v.), as desultory and unscientific as it found it. As a poet, Lavater published Christliche Lieder (1776-1780) and two epics, Jesus Messias (1780) and Joseph von Arimathia (1794), in the style of Klopstock. More important and characteristic of the religious temperament of Lavater's age are his introspective Aussichten in die Ewigkeit (4 vols., 1768-1778); Geheimes Tagebuch von einem Beobachter seiner selbst (2 vols., 1772-1773) and Pontius Pilatus, oder der Mensch in allen Gestalten (4 vols., 1782-1785). From 1774 on, Goethe was intimately acquainted with Lavater, but at a later period he became estranged from him, somewhat abruptly accusing him of superstition and hypocrisy. Lavater had a mystic's indifference to historical Christianity, and, although esteemed by himself and others a champion of orthodoxy, was in fact only an antagonist of rationalism. During the later years of his life his influence waned, and he incurred ridicule by some exhibitions of vanity. He redeemed himself by his patriotic conduct during the French occupation of Switzerland, which brought about his tragical death. On the taking of Zürich by the French in 1799, Lavater, while endeavouring to appease the soldiery, was shot through the body by an infuriated grenadier; he died after long sufferings borne with great fortitude, on the 2nd of January 1801.

Lavater himself published two collections of his writings, Vermischte Schriften (2 vols., 1774-1781), and Kleinere prosaische Schriften (3 vols., 1784-1785). His Nachgelassene Schriften were edited by G. Gessner (5 vols., 1801-1802); Sämtliche Werke (but only poems) (6 vols., 1836-1838); Ausgewählte Schriften (8 vols., 1841-1844). See G. Gessner, Lavaters Lebensbeschreibung (3 vols., 1802-1803); U. Hegner, Beiträge zur Kenntnis Lavaters (1836); F. W. Bodemann, Lavater nach seinem Leben, Lehren und Wirken (1856; 2nd ed., 1877); F. Muncker, J. K. Lavater (1883); H. Waser, J. K. Lavater nach Hegners Aufzeichnungen (1894); J. K. Lavater, Denkschrift zum 100. Todestag (1902).

"Hark The Harold Angels Sing"

This old paper cut was designed by illustrator Jessie Gillespie. The faint writing describes the paper cut as originally measuring seven inches across. She named her piece "Hark The Harold Angels Sing" and cut it in 1911.

      Christmas vendors in the city streets of American cities are not the most common subjects found in paper cuts of the 1900s. Below I have uploaded a video discussing the origins of Christmas vendors in New York City.

This video was made by The New York Historical Society.

Béatrice Coron: Her Stories Cut from Paper

      With scissors and paper, artist Béatrice Coron creates intricate worlds, cities and countries, heavens and hells. Striding onstage in a glorious cape cut from Tyvek, she describes her creative process and the way her stories develop from snips and slices."
      "TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the "Sixth Sense" wearable tech, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at http://www.ted.com/translate."

• Beatrice Coron , Her online studio is here.

"A Silhouette Portraiture Free"

This ad ran in the "El Paso Herald" in El Paso, Texas, Friday, December 1, 1916.

      Baron Scotford - late of 129 Regent Street, London W. and who made such a decided hit at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, will be with us Saturday, in Toy City (Basement), where he will make a Free Bust Portrait of every child accompanied by an adult.

      Baron Scotford is "The Greatest Silhouettist of the Age," and the press in all countries have paid him glowing tributes.

      He has executed Scissor Portraits of almost every king and queen of Europe, presidents of America, famous actresses and other distinguished persons.

      These Portraiture are executed in two minutes with scissors and black paper only.

      The illustrations above are taken from Baron Scotford's Gallery of Celebrities. The names from left to righat are:

      Her Royal Highness Princess Victoria, Lady Waterford. The Late Arch Duke Ferdinand of Austria, Mrs Winston Churchill and Her Royal Highness Princess Marie Louise Schleswig Holstein.

Related Links:

• Two silhouettes by Baron Scotford sold at Bonhams auction house
• Snipshots of Celebrities - a 1933 film depicting Baron Scotford as he works
• PR Silhouettes by Baron Scotford from 1915

Silhouettes From "The Little Minister"

Dallas Anderson as Gavin Dishart and Maude Adams
as Lady Babbie

      Maude Adams has so far successfully withstood the fabulous offers made her to act before the motion picture camera. She has always declared that she will not belittle her art by appearing on the screen despite the large financial remuneration. In order to find a satisfactory substitute for the film drama, however, Miss Adams has hit upon a novel compromise something which she believes will answer the same purpose. 

      It Is nothing less than a series of shadow pictures of herself and her companies in the plays of J. M. Barrie, In which she has made her greatest reputation. It will not be many years before Miss Adams will retire from the speaking stage altogether and she has already set about making silhouettes of herself. The first of these, reproduced here to-day, are taken from "The Little Minister," In which she Is now appearing with great success at the Empire Theatre. The play was first seen on the New York stage over ten years ago, but it's charm has never grown old. 

      The shadow pictures are extraordinarily life like reproductions of the stage characters. In many respects they surpass actual photographs. Miss Adams plans to have them taken of every scene in which she has appeared and to file them away for future reference and comparison. 

      Heretofore managers have believed that the best way to carry down their productions to posterity was to have motion pictures taken of the plays. Besides the additional financial revenue that accrues to them by this method a certain additional publicity is secured by means of the plays on the screen, especially as they reach a much larger public than the spoken drama. Of course there is always the possibility that the movies may ultimately Interfere with the popularity of the spoken play but the managers have been willing to take this chance. 

      The characters portrayed in the present series of silhouettes of "The Little Minister" include Miss Adams as lady Babbie; Dallas Anderson as Gavin Dishart, Elsie Carens as Felive, Gladys Gillen as Micah Doir. Ada Boshelll  as Nannie Webster, and Angela Ogden as Jean. 

      To any one who has seen the present production of "The Little Mlnister" the silhouettes will immediately recall not only the scene of the play but the particular facial characteristics of the persons therein if not the very conversation or dialogue that is taking place. 

      When Miss Adams was questioned about this novel idea of hers she said that it was the nearest substitute for the "movies" that she could think of at the time and besides that in many respects the silhouettes were much more artistic than photographs. 

Scenes from Barrie's famous play preserved
in shadow pictures.

      The manner of taking them is quite simple. The actors stand in front of a large white sheet, curtain or other smooth material while a bright light from the front Is directed upon them, throwing the shadows out in bold relief on the light background. After that, the process is that of any other ordinary photograph or portrait. One convenience of the silhouette photograph is that each character can be carefully cut out with a pair of shears and packed away in a small space. 

      If Miss Adams carries out her intention to have silhouettes taken of her other plays, she will have a particularly delightful field of endeavor in "Peter Pan," the boy who never grew up in the play that never grows old. It Is doubtful, however, if Tinker Bell would ever consent to have a silhouette made of her. But the Lost Children, Wendy, Captain Hook: and the scores and scores of other delightful and charming people pictured in Mr. Barrie's plays would form excellent subjects. 

      It Is not at all unlikely that other managers will follow Miss Adams's example in the same direction by having similar pictures taken of their various productions. It would undoubtedly make for a higher artistic appreciation of the art of the theater and would carry down to future generations something of the spirit of the plays which their fathers and grandfathers saw before them. (The Sun, Sunday, February 20, 1916.)

"The Little Minister" tells his love.

Lady Babbie goes away.

Lady Babbie serves tea.

The two at the well.

Now the little minister has to explain.

Now the little minister sees Babbie as a fine lady.

Later, a film was made of J. M. Barrie's 1897 play. 

Theatrical release poster

      "The Little Minister" is a 1934 American drama film directed by Richard Wallace. The screenplay by Jane Murfin, Sarah Y. Mason, and Victor Heerman is based on the 1891 novel and subsequent 1897 play of the same title by J. M. Barrie. It was the fifth feature film adaptation of the works, following four silent film versions. The original novel was the third of the three "Thrums" novels (a town based on his home of Kirriemuir), which first brought Barrie to fame.

      Set in rural 1840s Scotland, the plot focuses on labor and class issues while telling the story of Gavin Dishart, a staid cleric newly assigned to Thrums' Auld Licht church, and Babbie, a member of the nobility who disguises herself as a gypsy girl in order to interact freely with the local villagers and protect them from her guardian, Lord Rintoul, who wants to keep them under his control. Initially the conservative Dishart is appalled by the feisty girl, but he soon comes to appreciate her inner goodness. Their romantic liaison scandalizes the townspeople, and the minister's position is jeopardized until Babbie's true identity is revealed.

      Katharine Hepburn initially rejected the role of Babbie, then reconsidered, against the advice of her agent Leland Hayward, when Margaret Sullavan was offered the role. The film was budgeted at $650,000, which at the time was considered a high amount, and much of it was spent on exterior shooting in California's Sherwood Forest and Laurel Canyon and on the elaborate village set constructed on the RKO back lot. (It later was used in a number of films, including Laurel and Hardy's Bonnie Scotland). It was RKO's most expensive film of the year and the most expensive film in which Hepburn had appeared.

      The soundtrack includes the traditional Scottish tunes "The Bonnie Banks O' Loch Lomond," "Comin' Thro' the Rye," and "House of Argyle." The 3-CD set Max Steiner: The RKO Years 1929-1936 includes ten tracks of incidental music Steiner composed for the film.

      The film had its world premiere at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. (Wikipedia)

Schneekönigin, Scherenschnitt, Snowqueen

      "The Snow Queen" (Danish: Snedronningen) is a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875). The tale was first published in 1845, and centers on the struggle between good and evil as experienced by a little boy and girl, Kai and Gerda.

      The story is one of Andersen's longest and is considered by scholars, critics, and readers alike as one of his best. It is regularly included in selected tales and collections of his work and is frequently reprinted in illustrated storybook editions for children. The tale has been adapted in various media including animated film and television drama.

      An evil "troll" ("actually the devil himself") makes a magic mirror that has the power to distort the appearance of things reflected in it. It fails to reflect all the good and beautiful aspects of people and things while it magnifies all the bad and ugly aspects so that they look even worse than they really are. The devil teaches a "devil school," and the devil and his pupils delight in taking the mirror throughout the world to distort everyone and everything. They enjoy how the mirror makes the loveliest landscapes look like "boiled spinach". They then want to carry the mirror into heaven with the idea of making fools of the angels and God, but the higher they lift it, the more the mirror grins and shakes with delight. It shakes so much that it slips from their grasp and falls back to earth where it shatters into billions of pieces — some no larger than a grain of sand. These splinters are blown around and get into people's hearts and eyes, making their hearts frozen like blocks of ice and their eyes like the troll-mirror itself, only seeing the bad and ugly in people and things.

       Years later, a little boy, Kai, and a little girl, Gerda, live next door to each other in the garrets of buildings with adjoining roofs in a large city. One could get from Kai's to Gerda's home just by stepping over the gutters of each building. The two families grow vegetables and roses in window boxes placed on the gutters. Kai and Gerda have a window-box garden to play in, and they become devoted in love to each other as playmates.

      Kai's grandmother tells the children about the Snow Queen, who is ruler over the snowflakes, that look like bees — that is why they are called "snow bees". As bees have a queen, so do the snow bees, and she is seen where the snowflakes cluster the most. Looking out of his frosted window, Kai, one winter, sees the Snow Queen, who beckons him to come with her. Kai draws back in fear from the window.

      By the following spring, Gerda has learned a song that she sings to Kai: Where the roses deck the flowery vale, there, infant Jesus thee we hail! Because roses adorn the window box garden, Gerda is always reminded of her love for Kai by the sight of roses.

      It was on a pleasant summer's day that splinters of the troll-mirror get into Kai's heart and eyes while he and Gerda are looking at a picture book in their window-box garden. Kai's personality changes: he becomes cruel and aggressive. He destroys their window-box garden, he makes fun of his grandmother, and he no longer cares about Gerda, since all of them now appear bad and ugly to him. The only beautiful and perfect things to him now are the tiny snowflakes that he sees through a magnifying glass.

      The following winter he goes out with his sled to the market square and hitches it—as was the custom of those playing in the snowy square—to a curious white sleigh carriage, driven by the Snow Queen, who appears as a woman in a white fur-coat. Outside the city she shows herself to Kai and takes him into her sleigh. She kisses him only twice: once to numb him from the cold, and the second time to cause him to forget about Gerda and his family. She does not kiss him a third time as that would kill him. Kai is then taken to the Snow Queen's palace on Spitsbergen, near the North Pole where he is contented to live due to the splinters of the troll-mirror in his heart and eyes.

      The people of the city, once they realize Kai is nowhere to be seen or found, get the idea that Kai drowned in the river nearby, but Gerda, who is heartbroken at Kai's disappearance, goes out to look for him. She questions everyone and everything about Kai's whereabouts. Gerda offers her new red shoes to the river in exchange for Kai; by not taking the gift at first, the river seems to let her know that Kai did not actually drown after all. Gerda next visits an old sorceress, who wants Gerda to stay with her forever. She causes Gerda to forget all about her friend and, knowing that the sight of roses will remind Gerda of Kai, the sorceress causes all the roses in her garden to sink beneath the earth. At the home of the old sorceress, a rosebush raised from below the ground by Gerda's warm tears tells her that Kai is not among the dead, all of whom it could see while it was under the earth. Gerda flees from the old woman's beautiful garden of eternal summer and meets a crow, who tells her that Kai was in the princess's palace. She subsequently goes to the palace and meets the princess and her prince, who appears very similar to Kai. Gerda tells them her story and they help by providing warm clothes and a beautiful coach. While traveling in the coach Gerda is captured by robbers and brought to their castle, where she is befriended by a little robber girl, whose pet doves tell her that they had seen Kai when he was carried away by the Snow Queen in the direction of Lapland. The captive reindeer Bae tells her that he knows how to get to Lapland since it is his home.

      The robber girl, then, frees Gerda and the reindeer to travel north to the Snow Queen's palace. They make two stops: first at the Lapp woman's home and then at the Finn woman's home. The Finn woman tells the reindeer that the secret of Gerda's unique power to save Kai is in her sweet and innocent child's heart:

"I can give her no greater power than she has already," said the woman; "don't you see how strong that is? How men and animals are obliged to serve her, and how well she has got through the world, barefooted as she is. She cannot receive any power from me greater than she now has, which consists in her own purity and innocence of heart. If she cannot herself obtain access to the Snow Queen, and remove the glass fragments from little Kai, we can do nothing to help her..."

      When Gerda gets to the Snow Queen's palace, she is first halted by the snowflakes which guard it. The only thing that overcomes them is Gerda's praying the Lord's Prayer, which causes her breath to take the shape of angels, who resist the snowflakes and allow Gerda to enter the palace. Gerda finds Kai alone and almost immobile on the frozen lake, which the Snow Queen calls the "Mirror of Reason" on which her throne sits. Gerda finds Kai engaged in the task that the Snow Queen gave him: he must use pieces of ice as components of a Chinese puzzle to form characters and words. If he is able to form the word "eternity" (Danish: Evigheden) the Snow Queen will release him from her power and give him a pair of skates. Gerda finds him, runs up to him, and weeps warm tears on him, which melt his heart, burning away the troll-mirror splinter in it. Kai bursts into tears, dislodging the splinter from his eye. Gerda kisses Kai a few times, and he becomes cheerful and healthy again, with sparkling eyes and rosy cheeks: he is saved by the power of Gerda's love. He and Gerda dance around on the lake of ice so joyously that the splinters of ice Kai has been playing with are caught up into the dance. When the splinters tire of dancing they fall down to spell the very word Kai was trying to spell, "eternity." Even if the Snow Queen were to return, she would be obliged to free Kai. Kai and Gerda then leave the Snow Queen's domain with the help of the reindeer, the Finn woman, and the Lapp woman. They meet the robber girl after they have crossed the line of vegetation, and from there they walk back to their home, "the big city." They find that all is the same at home, but they have changed! They are now grown up, and they are delighted to see that it is summertime. At the end, the grandmother reads a passage from the Bible:

"Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:3).

Characters in the Fairy Tale:

• The Snow Queen, queen of the snowflakes or "snow bees", who travels throughout the world with the snow. Her palace and gardens are in the lands of permafrost, specifically Spitsbergen. She is successful in abducting Kai after he has fallen victim to the splinters of the troll-mirror. She promises to free Kai if he can spell "eternity" with the pieces of ice in her palace.
• The troll or the devil Satan, who makes an evil mirror that distorts reality and later shatters to infect people with its splinters that distort sight and freeze hearts. Some English translations of The Snow Queen denote this character as a hobgoblin.
• Kai (or Kay), a little boy who lives in a large city, in the garret of a building across the street from the home of Gerda, his playmate, whom he loves dearly. He falls victim to the splinters of the troll-mirror and the blandishments of the Snow Queen.
• Gerda, the heroine of this tale, who succeeds in finding and saving Kai from the Snow Queen.
• Grandmother of Kai, who tells him and Gerda the legend of the Snow Queen. Some of Grandmother's actions are essential points of the story.
• An old sorceress, who maintains a cottage on the river, with a garden that is permanently in summer. She seeks to keep Gerda with her, but Gerda's thought of roses (the flower most favored by herself and Kai) awakens her from the old woman's enchantment.
• A field crow or raven, who thinks that the new prince of his land is Kai.
• A tame crow or raven, who is the mate of the field crow/raven and has the run of the princess's palace. She lets Gerda into the royal bedchamber in her search for Kai.
• A princess, who desires a prince-consort as intelligent as she, and who finds Gerda in her palace. She helps Gerda in her search for Kai by giving her warm, rich clothing, servants, and a golden coach.
• Her prince, formerly a poor young man, who comes to the palace and passes the test set by the princess to become prince.
• A robber hag, the only woman among the robbers who capture Gerda as she travels through their region in a golden coach.
• The robber girl, daughter of the robber hag. She takes Gerda as a playmate, whereupon her captive doves and reindeer Bae tell Gerda that Kai is with the Snow Queen. The robber girl then helps Gerda continue her journey to find Kai.
• Bae, the reindeer, who carries Gerda to the Snow Queen's palace.
• A Lapp woman, who provides shelter to Gerda and Bae, and writes a message on a dried cod fish to the Finn woman further on the way to the Snow Queen's gardens.
• A Finn woman (also known as the "Witch of Finland"), who lives just 2 miles away from the Snow Queen's gardens and palace. She knows the secret of Gerda's power to save Kai.

^{More Links to The Snow Queen:}

• The Snow Queen at the Hans Christian Andersen website
• SurLaLune's Annotated The Snow Queen
• Free audiobook from LibriVox 

"Laundry Day" by Kathryn Carr

"It is a warm sunny summer day and the bunnies are out hanging laundry. This is an image from my papercut designs, Please go to http://www.cafepress.com/gocarrgo to see more images and purchase images on t-shirts and totes and more ... Thanks"

Paper Cutting by Julie Marabelle

"More than 20 hours of meticulous paper-cutting squashed into a little more than 2 minutes of film. This I hope shows the real skill and dedication involved in creating just one map by artist/illustrator Julie Marabelle. Hope you enjoy the film. You can buy prints of this map (and others) at http://www.famillesummerbelle.com. "

Scherenschnitte by Mary Olive Jones

"Mary Olive Jones, a beloved kindergarten teacher in Fairmont, W.Va., in the 1950s and 60s, created these intricately detailed framed Scherenschnitte paper cuttings. Each piece was painstakingly handcrafted and yet each retains a very modern feel."

Craft Scherenschnitte on Easter Eggs

      Scherenschnitte (German pronunciation: [ˈʃeːʁənˌʃnɪtə]), which means "scissor cuts" in German, is the art of papercutting design. The art work often has symmetry within the design, and common forms include silhouettes, valentines, and love letters. The art tradition was founded in Switzerland and Germany in the 16th century, and was brought to Colonial America in the 18th century by immigrants who settled primarily in Pennsylvania. 

      Below are links to those who apply scherenschnitte to Easter eggs. These lovely crafts would be just as impressive on either a Christmas tree or displayed in a cabinet or bowl for Valentines Day. In the near future I will be including a few of my own scherenschnitte patterns for Easter eggs below.

Video by Heike Müller-Kulski

 
More Scherenschnitte on Easter Eggs:

1. Schweizer Scherenscnitte
2. Silhouette Easter Eggs
3. Silhouette Stenciled Easter Eggs Tutorial
4. Another similiar silhouette Easter Egg tutorial from "dear lillie"
5. Scherenschnittkunst auf Ostereier
6. German-Style Paper Cutout Easter Eggs

More Easter Themed Templates For Easter Egg Scherenschnitte Themes:

1. Template Tuesday - Lamb of God
2. Papercuttings By Alison