Beatrix Sherman (1894-1975) 20th century silhouette artist. She was born in Scranton, PA, and studied art from an early age, attending Saturday classes at the Art Institute of Chicago from October 1905 until January 1906.She later went on to attend the Institute's Juvenile School in the fall of 1909. She returned to the Art Institute of Chicago in February 1912, attending classes through March 1914. Beatrix Sherman's first documented silhouettes were shown at the Twenty-Sixth Annual Exhibition of Water Colors, and Pastels and Miniatures by American Artists held by the Art Institute of Chicago from May 7 to June 7, 1914. At the exhibition, Sherman displayed six pieces, five of which were silhouettes. Keeping a permanent studio in New York City through the 1950s, Sherman traveled extensively cutting silhouettes. Attending six World Fairs, in 25 years, she attempted to expand the traditional boundaries of the silhouette artist, doing more than simply cutting a quick and inexpensive portrait of the sitter. Her efforts to adapt her profession to changing times allowed her both greater economic and artistic freedom. Even from an early age, she had begun copyrighting silhouettes of a number of the famous people she cut. Reproductions of presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and Herbert Hoover were copyrighted in 1918. Sherman continued to cut both single and larger family silhouettes into her later career. After relocating to West Palm Beach in 1957, she continued to attend social and charitable events with the goal of cutting silhouettes. Previous exhibitions and international fairs displaying her signed silhouettes of the famous allowed her access to a number of different social circles, helping her to continue pursuing her art creating collections of signed portraits. In 1961, Sherman cut the silhouette of President John F. Kennedy. The January 1, 1961 Palm Beach-Post Times article wrote 'She was admitted to his press conference Saturday morning to try her art from the sidelines while Kennedy spoke.' Kennedy was her 10th presidential silhouette. It is of interest that in the same article Sherman discusses her plans to publish a book to be titled Shadows of the Great featuring silhouettes from her collection of portraits of over 10,000 people. One of her last exhibits, at the sixth anniversary of the Henry Morrison Flagler Museum, displayed a number of her silhouettes, including President Kennedy's and nine other presidential portraits Sherman had cut, beginning with Theodore Roosevelt, at the Hero Land Bazaar, held in New York City in 1917. Offered here is an original silhouette of an unknown sibject, signed twice, dated 1932. She adds in her handwriting "These clever people are so human and modest." Left side approx. 3 x 4-1/4".

FINE