Le Colère mêlée de crainte (from Caractères des passions, gravés sur les desseins de l'illustre Monsieur le Brun)

Art Historical Context

In the late 17th to early 18th century, French artist Charles Le Brun, premier painter to Louis XIV and director of Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, pioneered studies of human passions through facial expressions. His influential drawings on this theme were masterfully etched by Sébastien Le Clerc Younger in the series *Caractères des passions, gravés sur les desse de l'illustre le Brun* (c. 1695–1720). *Le Colère mêlée de crainte* (Anger Mixed with Fear) captures a man's intense head in profile, embodying the turbulent blend of fury and apprehension that Le Brun dissected in lectures like his famous *Conférence* on expression. This small etching (7.5 × 14.8 cm) exemplifies the precision of the etching technique, where acid bites into a metal plate to create fine, intricate lines ideal for replicating Le Brun's anatomical accuracy. Le Clerc's skilled translation made these studies accessible beyond elite circles, influencing artists, actors, and anatomists during the Baroque era's fascination with emotion and physiognomy. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department (Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1953), this print remains a testament to how 17th-century French theory bridged art and science, offering timeless insight into the human face as a map of the soul.

About the Artist

Sébastien Le Clerc, le Jeune|Charles Le Brun (French|French) · 1676 |1619 –1763 |1690

French, Paris 1676–1763 Gobelins|French, Paris 1619–1690 Paris