Drawing: Expressions of Emotion (Wonder, Love, Veneration, Rapture), from Encyclopédie
1762/77
Medium
Etching with engraving on cream laid paper
Dimensions
Image: 31.5 × 20.6 cm (12 7/16 × 8 1/8 in.); Plate: 35 × 22.5 cm (13 13/16 × 8 7/8 in.); Sheet: 40 × 26 cm (15 3/4 × 10 1/4 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
148253
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
The French Academy president Charles Le Brun’s famous lecture on the subject of facial expressions likely took place in two sessions, on April 7 and May 5, 1668. He assimilated many textual sources, including Descartes, but it was the series of drawings he produced to illustrate the different expressions that had the most impact. These images were copied incessantly, but some difficulty remains in identifying them, especially for a modern audience. This sheet from the 1777 Encyclopédie uses Le B...
About the Artist
A. J. Defehrt · 1708–1779
A. J. Defehrt (1723–1779) was a French draftsman, painter, and engraver whose career is best defined by his substantial contributions to one of the most ambitious publishing projects of the European Enlightenment: the illustrated plates of Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert's Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. This monumental project, which aimed t...