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CUT-PAPER ART

Pick up the scissors,
not the pencil.

Some of the best-loved pictures were never drawn.

Hands cutting a curving leaf shape from a sheet of bright blue painted paper, with other painted paper shapes pinned to a white board behind — AI-generated image, not a photograph of a real person or place.

They were cut. Shadow portraits gave Britain its first cheap likenesses, paper-cut is part of everyday life across China, and a painter in his seventies called his late work drawing with scissors.

CUT, DON'T DRAWshape comes first

Compare the styles

Keep in mind

Shadows into portraits
Cut for every occasion
Paint first, then cut
Three traditions, one pair of scissors

THE SHORT ANSWER

Three traditions,
one pair of scissors.

Each style starts from a different idea:
a shadow, a pattern, or a sheet of colour.

SILHOUETTES

A portrait from a shadow

A profile filled in with black. The National Portrait Gallery calls silhouettes the first widely available popular portraiture in Britain.

See the numbers

PAPER-CUT

Cut for windows and weddings

Chinese paper-cut is cut or engraved with a chisel, coloured or left blank. UNESCO inscribed it as intangible cultural heritage in 2009.

Compare the styles

CUT-OUTS

Drawing with scissors

Henri Matisse's assistants painted paper with gouache; he cut it into shapes and arranged them with pins before they were mounted.

Try the method

COMPARE THE STYLES

Which kind of
cut paper is it?

Pick a style to see how it is made and where it comes from. The bar shows how much colour the style usually uses, from a single dark shape to vivid painted sheets.

Cut-paper guide

Choose a styleA shadow profileA seaside silhouetteA Chinese paper-cutA painted cut-out

A shadow profileOne dark shape

A profile or shadow portrait filled in with black or a dark colour, common in Europe in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

A seaside silhouetteCut while you wait

In the early 20th century silhouette cutters worked on piers around Britain. One Brighton Pier cutter cut thousands of portraits for holidaymakers in the 1920s and 1930s.

A Chinese paper-cutCut or chiselled

Cut or engraved with a chisel, coloured or left blank, and used to decorate windows, beds and ceilings or for weddings, birthdays and ceremonies.

A painted cut-outVivid colour

Paper painted with bright gouache, cut into shapes, pinned into a composition and later mounted. Matisse called it cutting directly into vivid colour.

Sources: National Portrait Gallery glossary and Silhouettes display; UNESCO Chinese paper-cut listing; MoMA press release on Matisse's cut-outs (2024).

Based on descriptions from the National Portrait Gallery, UNESCO and the Museum of Modern Art.

TWO NUMBERS WORTH KNOWING

Cheap to make,
fragile to keep.

How long silhouettes were Britain's everyday portrait,
and how long one famous cut-out was kept from light.

≈ 100 years

Years as Britain's affordable likeness

In the hundred years before photography, silhouettes gave the British public an inexpensive way to have their likeness made, often cut in multiples for family and friends.

SILHOUETTES · NPG

20+ years

Years one cut-out spent off view

Matisse's The Swimming Pool (1952) was off view from 1993 to 2014 and then had a five-year conservation effort. As a light-sensitive work on paper, it is now being stored away from light for a number of years.

CUT-OUTS · MoMA

The National Portrait Gallery says the earliest known British silhouette is a portrait of William III and Mary cut by a Mrs Pyburg in 1699, and that the craze peaked in the 1790s.

TRY IT AT THE TABLE

Paint, cut,
pin, then glue.

The cut-out method MoMA describes needs only paint, paper, scissors and a few pins. The trick is to arrange before you stick.

An intricate red paper-cut of flowers and birds stuck to a sunlit window, its fine cut lines glowing in the light — AI-generated image, not a photograph of a real person or place.

Step 1

Paint some sheets first

Matisse's assistants painted paper with gouache, so he had a range of bright colours to cut into.

Step 2

Cut without drawing

Cut shapes straight from the colour instead of tracing an outline. That is what drawing with scissors means.

Step 3

Pin before you glue

He arranged the pieces with pins, so they could be moved, and the compositions were mounted later.

Step 4

Try a shadow profile

For a silhouette, trace a profile from a shadow, then cut it from dark paper and mount it on a pale card.

WHY CUT INSTEAD OF DRAW

A craft that fits
every hand.

AI-generated image, not a photograph of a real person or place.

The Met says Matisse turned to drawing with scissors after surgery in 1941 left him weak and with restricted mobility. In 1943 he began the cut-outs for his book Jazz, published in 1947, in colours he called vivid and violent.

UNESCO describes Chinese paper-cut as a popular art integral to everyday life, often passed from mother to daughter from childhood and particularly common in rural areas. Motifs vary by region: in southern China, fine and delicate designs predominate.

Questions

Questions on the way

Why is it called a silhouette?

The National Portrait Gallery says the name comes from Etienne de Silhouette (1709 to 1767), a French finance minister who made paper cut-outs as a hobby.

How old is silhouette cutting?

The National Portrait Gallery traces the first record to the court of Catherine de Medici in late 16th-century France. The earliest known British example dates from 1699.

What is Chinese paper-cut?

A popular art found throughout China and among many ethnic groups. Paper is cut or engraved with a chisel and used for interior decoration, festivities and prayers. UNESCO inscribed it on its Representative List in 2009.

What did Matisse mean by drawing with scissors?

Cutting shapes directly from painted paper instead of drawing outlines. MoMA says his assistants painted the paper with gouache, he cut it, and he arranged the pieces with pins before they were mounted.

Why do paper cut-outs fade?

Paper and paint can be light-sensitive. MoMA is storing The Swimming Pool away from light for a number of years to keep its colours vibrant and stable.

Destination

Where the facts come from

Updated 16 October 2026

Pick up the scissors,not the pencil.

Three traditions,one pair of scissors.