#physionotrace

[silver-whistle]

Update

Have chance of more p/t work to make up hours. Phew…

Talk on physionotrace in York, for Alliance Française, went well, though I had to challenge some misconceptions about Max, given audience mostly older people not up-to-date with recent scholarship. One man referred to him as “a nasty little man”, based on some outdated work by John Julius Norwich (not a French Rev expert – book came out last year, but it’s pop-level stuff by an octogenarian aristocrat, not based on modern research).

Have drawn a line under (and through) some old friendships from university days. Sad, but time to move on. Thought we’d be friends for ever, but they want to put an international border between us, through my family, my life and sense of self.  

[silver-whistle]

La conférence de Marianne Gilchrist, historienne de l'Art, le 28 mars 2019 au Musée des beaux arts d'Arras (texte et illustrations) « Bonsoir, citoyens, citoyennes – concitoyens, concitoyennes ! Je regrette, mais je ne suis pas si courante en français que je souhaitais, mais j'espère que vous me pardonnez. Ce soir, je voudrais partager des exemples du physionotrace et leur importance dans l'iconographie de Maximilien Robespierre. »

Robespierre’s Nose: The Physionotrace and Revolutionary Portraiture

Bilingual version of physionotrace talk in Arras…

[silver-whistle]

Happy 261st Birthday/Bon anniversaire, Maximilien!

Le bel Incorruptible – son ‘grand trait’ dessiné avec le physionotrace, par Jean-Baptiste Fouquet, 1792.

[silver-whistle]

Max and Manga-Max

On the left, Max in an engraving of August 1793, probably a physionotrace (the technique always heavily emphasises the eyelashes); in the right, Max in La Rose de Versailles. Looking at his nose and eyes, it’s clear he needs very little alteration to be turned into a manga character… Which amuses me greatly.

[silver-whistle]

More physionotraces – in the US

There are a lot of them in the US National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian. Run a search on Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin (the French émigré artist who did them), and you will turn up hundreds.

Highlights include:

Aaron Burr (and I think that’s a wig!)

His daughter Theodosia and her friend Nathalie Delage:

Thanks to @charie-caphine​ for alerting me to them! Interesting web-page on the Burrs, too!

(And I like the sound of his half-Bengali son, Jean-Pierre Burr!)

[silver-whistle]

Another physionotrace: Marat

Here’s Jean-Paul by the Fouquet/Chrétien physionotrace dream-team! But note the inscription: it’s posthumous, and based on the bust by our sculptor friend Claude-André Deseine “sourd et muet” (deaf-mute). Physionotraces could be done from busts or death-masks: the one of Le Peletier was done this way, as was Rousseau (by Quenedey).

They’ve made him look reasonably respectable, with tidy hair and a smart coat. After all, he has a degree from the same university as yours truly, so he ought to try to look decent… ;-D

[silver-whistle]

More Musical Physionotraces!

I am utterly delighted with physionotraces as a form of portraiture! Edmé Quenedey did quite a few physionotraces of famous composers. Here are Mozart (not at all attractive in profile!), Haydn (interesting half-wig over hair arrangement!), Grétry and Méhul.

[silver-whistle]

Physionotrace of Gossec by Edmé Quenedey

Another wonderful physionotrace, full of character.