Beatrix Sherman: “The Girl Who Cuts Up”

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“The Girl Who Cuts Up”

Beatrix Sherman, Silhouettist

Mlle. Beatrix Sherman, the Silhouette Artist. 
She cut this portrait of herself by the aid of a double mirror.

Digging into the archives for our Panama-Pacific International Exhibition (PPIE) display turned up a small collection of hand-cut silhouette portraits that were made during the fair in 1915 and later donated to the library by Eliot Evans of Orinda. Two of those portraits were cut by Beatrix Sherman, otherwise known as “The Girl Who Cuts Up" -- a woman who piqued our interest.


Beatrice Sherman was born on January 10, 1894 in Scranton, Pennsylvania to George and Josephine Sherman. Her father was a printer and author of Practical Printing, and watching her mother cut intricate lace designs was an early influence. She began taking Saturday art classes at the Art Institute of Chicago at age 11 and later studied at Henderson College in Arkansas. By 1912, she was back in Chicago taking classes at the Art Institute, and it was around this time that the aspiring artist began spelling her first name with an “x.”


Her career as an artist was launched when she was included in the Twenty-Sixth Annual Exhibition of Water Colors, Pastels and Miniatures at the Art Institute in 1914. Then in 1915, when she was 21 years old, she set off for San Francisco and the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition, where she made her professional debut as a silhouette artist. She secured a spot at the entrance to the Palace of Food Products, where she could be found “cutting up” from 9am to 6pm every day during the fair. She made it clear to attendees that she was “not connected in any manner with other concessions purporting to be of a similar nature.” Promotional materials described her as “an American miniature and silhouette artist; the first since August Edouard (1789–1861) to place shadow-cutting on the plane of a consummate art.” 

Paper silhouette of Charlie Chaplin by Beatrix Sherman



Paper silhouette of Mary Pickford by Beatrix Sherman
While in San Francisco, she also cut portraits for society ladies at their parties and charity events. By 1915, she had registered a copyright for her portraits of Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, and Mary Pickford--presumably cut at the fair. 

She was also cutting miniature “engagement silhouettes in 1915.” What are those, you ask?  They were substitutes for engagement rings and supposed to be glued to your left cheek to indicate that you were “taken.” They were “Dan Cupid’s latest fad,” and Sherman suggested that men wear them too, in order to avoid “all possible confusion.” It was supposed to usurp the beauty spot in popularity-- a clever marketing concept and vehicle for her talent. [see: Substitute for Engagement Ring Expected to Become All the Rage below] By the early 1920s, she had also patented and was selling “Silhouette Stick-on-Figures: A Thousand Designs for Decorative Purposes, No Paste Necessary.” [see advertisement below]

Advertisement, circa 1920
 
Advertisement, circa 1920
She set up shop in NYC cutting silhouette portraits in New York through the 1930s and 1940s and continued finding work at society and charity events. In the early 1930s, she was advertising in the New York Times classified section, and Wanamaker’s Department store was advertising her services as a great idea for Christmas gifts or Valentine’s Day cards. She traveled extensively, cutting portraits at six World's Fairs in 25 years. She was notable for cutting, by 1937, all “the Presidents from T.R. to F.D.R.”
 

Silhouetteof Theodore Roosevelt by Beatrix Sherman.1918. Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site.
Over the years, she studied art in London, Paris, and Mexico; by 1949, she had returned to New York, after a three year stay in Paris, to reestablish a shop at 24 East 64th Street. She referred to herself in a newspaper feature at the time as “the greatest little cut-up in the country.” She reported making her start as a silhouettist when she was 13 years old and that it took her approximately two minutes to make a portrait. She estimated that she had completed 10,000 portraits, including those of Henry Ford, Thomas A. Edison, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Lillian Russell, and William Jennings Bryan. John F. Kennedy was her 10th presidential silhouette, done in 1961, from the sidelines of his press conference in Florida. 

Sherman, an entrepreneurial and talented woman, lived out the last 18 years of her long life in Palm Beach, Florida, where she had lived with her husband Jerome E.D. Montesanteau for many years. She reportedly spoke often about writing a book but apparently never did. She died, just before her 81st birthday, on January 1, 1975 in West Palm Beach, Florida. 

Her guestbooks, all believed to be in private collections, document her life’s work, complete with portraits and autographs of some of the most famous people of the day. But her comments about people, and what she learned from a lifetime of studying their profiles, tell a truth about humanity.  “Men are just as vain as women…and just as sensitive about being portrayed realistically...The middle-aged spread and the double chin are the chief bogeys for women, and the prominent nose and paunch, the tender spots for men." In general, Sherman "found men who have accomplished things…are less demanding and more willing to accept themselves as others see them.”

Famous Persons in Silhouette fromThe Green Book Magazine

And by the way, one of Sherman's silhouettes was the inspiration for our Valentine this year. Come by on February 14th to see it and for the rare opportunity to experience letterpress printing at the library. Everyone is welcome but broadsides are limited to the first 100 people. 

http://www.ppie100.org/ 



Advertisements: Wanamaker’s, The New York Times, 13 February 1932, p. 14 and 11 November 1932, p. 20. 
Advertisement: New York Times, 7 December 1930, p. 62.
Art Show Planned for Welfare Fund, New York Times, 31 March 1935, p. N7
Beatrix Sherman, Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia article
Bricks Without Straw, American Printer, v. 63, 5 July 1916, p. 49
Catalog of Copyright Entries, New Series, 1918, v. 13, No. 1, p. 75, GPO (Google Books)
Democrats Honor Mrs. J. Roosevelt, New York Times, 18 February 1934, p. 20
Famous Persons in Silhouette, The Green Book, November 1916, p. 929
Local Artist Beatrix Sherman To Exhibit at Flagler Museum, Palm Beach Daily News, 30 January 1966, p. 42
Press Club Dinner - "Hawaiian Night", The Press, v. 1, #2, p. 14-15, December 1915, The Press Club of San Francisco
Reporting Washington With a Pair of Scissors, San Francisco Chronicle, 23 June 1918, p. SM5
Silhouette Artist to Exhibit Works, New York Times, 9 October 1949, p. 81.
Local Artist Beatrix Sherman To Exhibit at Flagler Museum, Palm Beach Daily News, 30 January 1966, p. 42
Many Anecdotes Reveal Commoner’s Career, New York Times, 2 August 1925, p. XX3
Panama-Pacific International Exposition, Silhouettes, Framed artwork collection, San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library.
The Press Club of San Francisco Has an "Hawaiian Night", The Pacific Printer, v. XV, #1, January 1916, p.36
Silhouettes Popular in Decorative Art Works, The Bush Magazine, Vol VIII, #2, February 1920
Substitute for Engagement Ring Expected to Become All the Rage, San Francisco Examiner Clippings, “Sherman, B.” envelope, April 1915. San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library.
2-Day Bazaar to Aid Projects of Church, New York Times, 29 March 1949, p. 32
Work By Women Artists, New York Times, 7 November 1937, p. 191

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