Drawing: Expressions of Emotion (Wonder, Love, Veneration, Rapture), from Encyclopédie

Prints and Drawings

1762/77

A. J. Defehrt (French, active 18th century)
after Charles le Brun (French, active 17th century-1765)
published by André le Breton (French, 1708-1779), Michel-Antoine David (French, c. 1707-1769), Laurent Durand (French, 1712-1763), and Antoine-Claude Briasson (French, 1700-1775)

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 Brun’s images of the stages of love from astonishment to rapture.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: A. J. Defehrt
Title: Drawing: Expressions of Emotion (Wonder, Love, Veneration, Rapture), from Encyclopédie
Place: France (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1762–1777
Medium: Etching with engraving on cream laid paper
Inscriptions: Lettered, upper right: "pl.XXIV."; lower left: "le brun pinx."; lower right: "deferht sculp."; below image: "Dessein, expressions de passions."
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.)
Credit Line: The Art Institute of Chicago
Reference Number: 1941.133.72
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/148253/manifest.json

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Drawing: Expressions of Emotion (Wonder, Love, Veneration, Rapture), from Encyclopédie

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.