Collection Online as of January 27, 2021

Mécanisme de la physionomie humaine

Figure 51: À droite, contraction partielle de l'élévateur commun de l'aile du nez et de la lèvre supérieure: mécontentement, mauvaise humeur; à gauche, repos

c. 1856

Guillaume-Benjamin-Amand Duchenne (de Boulogne)

(French, 1806-1875)

Adrien Tournachon

(French, 1825-1903)

Albumen print from glass plate negative (printed 1862)

Image: 19.5 x 17 cm (7 11/16 x 6 11/16 in.); Paper: 21.5 x 17 cm (8 7/16 x 6 11/16 in.); Mounted: 41.1 x 27.5 cm (16 3/16 x 10 13/16 in.)

Severance and Greta Millikin Trust 2018.10

Location

not on view

Description

This photograph is part of the first systematic exploration of the physiology of human facial expression. In order to demonstrate how each individual muscle contributed to creating an expression, Duchenne stimulated one or more muscles on one side of the face and left the other at rest.

Inscriptions

Inscription

On the verso, lower left, in graphite, “fig. 51”.

Inscription Remark

The handwriting of the inscription matches the handwriting of the inscriptions on the other four Duchenne photographs, and the numeral ‘1’ was written in a European style (upside down ‘V’).

Citations

Sobieszek, Robert A. Ghost in the Shell: Photography and the Human Soul, 1850-2000 : Essays on Camera Portraiture. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1999.

Prodger, Phillip. Darwin's Camera: Art and Photography in the Theory of Evolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.

Duchenne, G.-B., and R. Andrew Cuthbertson. The Mechanism of Human Facial Expression. 2006.

Liberatore, Virginia, and G.-B. Duchenne. Performing the Passions between Classical and Modern Epistemes: Text and Photography in Duchenne De Boulogne's "Mécanisme De La Physionomie Humaine". 2002.

The Cleveland Museum of Art