Silhouette

sil-oo-et', a profile picture in black. The name is derived from Etienne de Silhouette, a French minister of finance of the eighteenth century, noted for economy. In search of amusement, the French court took to parsimony. Coats and gowns were made in the plainest fashion. Snuffboxes made of plain wood and worth a few sous were substituted for the jeweled articles ordinarily carried. In mock parsimony, even portraits were drawn in profile only--to save the expense of oils needed to paint a face. A la silhouette became the phrase in an idle court for the prevailing fashion of mock economy. Silhouette has lingered in connection with profile pictures only. A silhouette may be obtained most readily by allowing a shadow of the face or the object to fall on a wall or sheet of paper. Whittier, it may be remembered, uses the term in Snow-Bound: