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Cake day: June 13th, 2023

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  • Just to add some cool etymology to your reply: the word silhouette comes from a type of affordable portrait made by quickly painting or cutting out a persons profile in black paper. These, and portrait miniatures, fell quickly out of favour with the advent of photography.

    The word silhouette is derived from the name of Étienne de Silhouette, a French finance minister who, in 1759, was forced by France’s credit crisis during the Seven Years’ War to impose severe economic demands upon the French people, particularly the wealthy.[3] Because of de Silhouette’s austere economies, his name became synonymous with anything done or made cheaply and so with these outline portraits.[4][5] Prior to the advent of photography, silhouette profiles cut from black card were the cheapest way of recording a person’s appearance.[6][7]

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silhouette

    This is also an interesting article on the subject of pre-photographic portraiture: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait_miniature