Häusler, Ingrid, Dream creatures, around 1910

Ingrid Häusler. Dream creatures. Silhouette, 14 x 26,5 cm (image size), 34,5 x 44 cm (sheet size), signed at lower right "Ingrid Häusler", c. 1910.

- Paper stained, especially outside the image.

- Chimeras of the night -

While the filigree play figures, the girl's doll on the left with its ponytail sticking out, the cat on the rocking horse next to it and the dozing Punch on the other side of the bed seem to lead a surreal life of their own, fantastic dream figures appear on the wall above the sleeping girl's cot, passing by on a wild ride and transporting the sleeping girl into another world.
The play of levels of reality is particularly impressive and at the same time irritating because of the transparent paper in front of which the 'surreal' nursery is located, while the 'real' dream world begins behind it.

About the art

The silhouette, which was probably used in Asia as early as the 12th century as a stencil for porcelain painting, developed in Western Europe from the art of paper cutting, which became widespread in the 18th century. Named after the French finance minister Étienne de Silhouette, whose proverbial miserliness is the basis for the anecdote that he decorated his house with black silhouettes instead of oil paintings, the term 'silhouette', which emerged in the 1930s, was initially a negative expression for 'cheap art'. However, the silhouette was part of a tradition that quickly overshadowed its pejorative meaning. According to the legend of Pliny the Elder, the silhouette is the true origin of painting: a young Corinthian woman had traced the shadow of her lover's head on a wall as he set off on a sea voyage. This legend contains the two essential elements that made the silhouette a fashion that permeated all social classes in the second half of the 18th century. On the one hand, the silhouette creates an authentic image; on the other, it is a projection screen for desire. The silhouette, detached from the representation of the human profile, draws on this combination of realism and imaginative potential. The shadow became the artistic material for creating scenic representations with a strong affinity to the fairytale and the fantastic, while at the same time appearing authentic. The silhouette was therefore important not only for the Enlightenment, but also for Romanticism, Classicism and Biedermeier. The art remained popular well into the twentieth century and was practised by artists as diverse as Philipp Otto Runge and Henri Matisse.