In the early 19th century, a silhouette artist/phenomenon came to light in the person of William James Hubard. He was born in 1809, in Whitchurch, Shropshire. The story goes that as a child he would amuse himself in church by cutting silhouettes of the parishioners. When he was 12 or 13, he acquired a manager, one Mr. Smith, who created the Hubard Gallery in order to promote his young discovery. An 1823 advertisement for Hubard stated:

Just arrived at Mr. Critchfield’s….Master Hubard, the celebrated little artist, who, by a mere glance at the face! And with a pair of common scissors! Not by the help of a Machine, nor from any Sketch with Pencil, Penn or Crayon, but from Sight alone!!! Cuts out the most spirited and Striking Likenesses in One Minute—Horses, Dogs, Carriages, iin short every Object in nature and Art are the almost instantaneous productions of His Talismanic Scissors.

Prices are then given, ranging from 1s to 7s 6d for two full length portraits.

Master Hubard traveled extensively throughout England and Scotland, and from there set sail for New York, where he arrived in August of 1824. after two years there, he set off for Boston. Probably around 1827 Hubard broke off from the gallery, and soon began painting portraits in oils. He became well known as a portrait painter, and left off his silhouette art at that point. He often enhanced the profiles with details in gold—referred to as bronzing --- though current scholarship feels that this may have been done by other people in the studio.

This charming pair of sisters reside in their original frames, measuring 8.25" x 10.25" each. They came out of a southern Massachusetts estate, and could very likely have been cut by Hubard in Boston in the 1820s.