William M.S. Doyle

William Doyle began his career manufacturing wallpaper, but soon learned to cut silhouettes, paint miniatures, and make portraits in pastel. He went into business with Henry Williams as Williams & Doyle in Boston, who advertised themselves as “Miniature and Portrait Painters at the Museum; where profiles are correctly cut.” Their studio was in the Columbian Museum, which housed an array of portraits, wax sculptures, and natural history displays. His profiles were both hollow-cut and painted. He embellished his hollow-cut silhouettes with watercolor hair and additions to the sitters’ clothing around the edge. We know that he was working in silhouette at least as early as 1806, when he became one of the proprietors of the museum and continued to paint prominent Bostonians from his studio.

Sources: Smithsonian