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Hubert Leslie cut paper silhouettes (volume 3), 1923-1924


60 Portraits in set

Hubert John Leslie ran a Silhouette Studio on the West Pier, Brighton and elsewhere, from 1922 until 1940; he cut well over 20,000 portraits during that time. The National Portrait Gallery has 10 of his record books, covering the years from 1922 to 1950; these contain Leslie’s duplicate of each silhouette, and the sitter’s autograph. The slogan of his Silhouette Studio was ‘It only takes 5 minutes’; the modesty of his fees meant that his sitters come from a broad spectrum of British society. Also in the album are silhouettes of visitors from around the world, from New Zealand and North America, from China and Japan. There are sets of silhouettes of entire casts of actors performing at the West Pier Theatre, next to the Silhouette Studio.

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