Joseph Ducreux’s Self-Portraiture – Capturing Emotions in the Wake of Enlightenment and Revolution

Daniel Prytz Curator, 18th-Century Painting, Drawings and Prints

Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum Stockholm Volume 26:2 Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Two Male Studies by Jacques-Augustin-Catherine © Tate/CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0 (Unported)/ https:// is published with generous support from the Pajou for the 1785 and 1787 Concours du Torse at www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-venice-the- Friends of the Nationalmuseum. the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture campanile-of-san-marco-st-marks-and-the-pa- © Beaux-Arts de Paris, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais/ lazzo-ducale-doges-palace-late-d15258, (accessed Nationalmuseum collaborates with Svenska image Beaux-arts de Paris (Figs. 3–4, p. 21) 2021-01-28) (Fig. 12, p, 67) Dagbladet, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, © CC-BY Brian McNeil/Wikimedia Commons Grand Hôtel Stockholm, The Wineagency and Joseph Ducreux’s Self-Portraiture – Capturing (Fig. 13, p. 67) the Friends of the Nationalmuseum. Emotions in the Wake of Enlightenment and © The National Gallery, London/CC-BY-NC-ND Revolution (Fig. 14, p. 68) Cover Illustration © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée du Louvre)/ Model and cut by Pär Engsheden (b. 1967), sewn Jean-Gilles Berizzi (Fig. 2, p. 24) Graphic Design by Margareta Webrink, (b. 1956), Gown, 2018. BIGG Silk taffeta. Two parts, gown and cape, 154 x 130 x Landscape Paintings by Jean-Joseph-Xavier 130 cm (h x w x d) strapless gown, 154 x 130 x 165 Bidauld and Achille-Etna Michallon Layout cm (h x w x d) cape. Gift of Sara and Leo Danius. © Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY/ Agneta Bervokk Nationalmuseum, NMK 197/2019. Public Domain (Fig. 2, p. 28) Translation and Language Editing Publisher Five Perspectives on Contemporary Craft in Sweden Clare Barnes, Wendy Davies, Bianca Marsden-Day Susanna Pettersson, Director General © Daniel Milton (Fig. 1, p. 53) and Martin Naylor © Tomas Björkdal (Fig. 5, p. 56) Editors Publishing Ludvig Florén, Magnus Olausson and Martin Olin Sara Danius’s Nobel Gowns Ludvig Florén, Magnus Olausson, and Martin © Carl Bengtsson/Skarp Agent (Figs. 1–4, 57 Olin (Editors) and Ingrid Lindell (Publications Editorial Committee and 59) Manager) Ludvig Florén, Carina Fryklund, Eva-Lena Karlsson, Ingrid Lindell, Magnus Olausson, The Tessin Lecture: Inventing the Landscape. The Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum is published Martin Olin, Daniel Prytz and Cilla Robach Origin of Plein Air Painting in Italy in the Early twice a year and contains articles on the history 19th Century and theory of art relating to the collections of the Photographers © bpk/Hamburger Kunsthalle/Elke Walford Nationalmuseum. Nationalmuseum Photographic Studio/ (Fig. 1, p. 61) Linn Ahlgren, Erik Cornelius, Anna Danielsson, © bpk/Nationalgalerie, SMB/Jörg P. Anders Nationalmuseum Viktor Fordell and Cecilia Heisser (Fig. 2, p. 62) Box 16176 © bpk (Fig. 3, p. 62) SE–103 24 Stockholm, Sweden Picture Editors © Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH/ www.nationalmuseum.se Rikard Nordström and Marina Strouzer-Rodov Public Domain (Fig. 4, p. 63) © Christie’s Images/Bridgeman Images © Nationalmuseum, the authors and the owners of Photo Credits (Fig. 5, p. 63) the reproduced works Cover Illustration © Landesmuseum Hannover/ARTOTHEK © Carl Bengtsson/Skarp Agent (Fig. 6, p. 64) ISSN 2001-9238 © Musée Granet, Ville d’Aix-en-Provence/ Ber- A New Cabinet Piece by Frans Francken II nard Terlay (Fig. 8, p. 65) © Courtesy of the Seville Cathedral Chapter/ © The Ruskin Museum, Coniston (Fig. 9, p. 65) Daniel Salvador Almeida (Fig. 3, p. 16) © Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen/Public © Kunstmuseum, Basel/Public domain Domain (Fig. 10, p. 66) (Fig. 7, p. 18) © Josse/Leemage via Getty images (Fig. 11, p. 66)

Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum Volume 26:2, 2019 ACQUISITIONS/JOSEPH DUCREUX’S SELF-PORTRAITURE

Joseph Ducreux’s Self-Portraiture – Capturing Emotions in the Wake of Enlightenment and Revolution

Daniel Prytz Curator, 18th-Century Painting, Drawings and Prints

The French painter Joseph Ducreux (1735–1802) was one of the foremost portraitists active at the court of Louis XVI, and the quality of his work earned him the coveted position of premier peintre de la reine (“Principal Painter to the Queen”). From early on his portraiture was characterised by a strong and over- riding sense of naturalism, reflected in particular in his ability to capture a specific mien, emotional state or mindset. His talent for the “physiognomic” aspects of portraiture grew and was refined throug- hout his career, culminating in a series of innovative and justly famous self-portraits, primarily created in the 1790s.

Maurice Quentin de La Tour and the “Smile of Reason” Ducreux was born in Nancy and at first probably trained with his father. In 1760 he went to Paris where he in all probability became a student of Maurice Quentin de La Tour (1704–1788).1 Just like his master, he became especially prominent as a pastellist, and the influence of La Tour is evidenced in several aspects of Ducreux’s work. Apart from the obvious technical and stylistic similarities, there are also several when it comes to content. La Tour was part of a cultural context in the mid- 18th century which undoubtedly also laid the groundwork for Ducreux’s innovations some 30 years later. The former artist’s sensitive portraits of, for example, Fig. 1 Maurice Quentin de La Tour (1704–1788), Portrait of Voltaire. Pastel on paper, Rousseau and Voltaire seem to capture 26.5 x 18 cm. Purchase 1968. Nationalmuseum, NMB 1946.

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gral part of French portraiture, which was Ducreux’s wish to capture in himself both dominated by artists as well as a clientele universal and commonplace expressions.8 who were both progressive and genteel. They were done in oil, yet retained all the Few other artists, however, could master immediacy of his pastel portraits. the new type of portraiture the way La In our own media-saturated times, Tour did. Perhaps his predilection for it is perhaps hard for us to realise what working with pastels played a part here. It effect these self-portraits must have had is as if La Tour intentionally explored the on the contemporary viewer. Although one inherent frailty of the technique and fused is tempted to regard them as such, these it with the subject matter of his portraiture were by no means caricatures, but nor – both the characteristics of the individual of course did they exhibit the traditional man and the strengths and weaknesses composure expected of both portraits and of humanity – in the process capturing self-portraits. Strong emotions were com- its imperfection in a close to perfect way.4 monplace in caricature, but they were by This was an approach to portraiture which nature often exaggerated and ridiculed, Ducreux developed and also perfected. No- and here Ducreux instead seems to be try- table figures whom Ducreux portrayed in ing in earnest to depict the actual natural pastels included the writer Pierre Choder- feelings of surprise and surprised fear. To Fig. 2 Joseph Ducreux (1735–1802), Self-Portrait, los de Laclos (1741–1803) and the connois- some extent there are similarities here Called Le Moqueur (the Mocker), 1793. Oil on seurs Pierre-Jean Mariette, the Comte to the established academic tradition of canvas, 91.5 x 72.5 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris, de Caylus (1692–1765) and Ange-Laurent producing what were termed têtes RF2261. de la Live de July (1725–1799), whose d’expression, studies of heads with the portraits are all close to La Tour’s images purpose of achieving the ideal depiction of figures of the Enlightenment.5 Just like of various emotions.9 However, trans- La Tour, Ducreux took advantage of the ferring this particular artistic aim to not only the personalities of these giants somewhat transient nature of the pastel self-portraiture is both rare and unex- of letters, but also the central themes of technique and made it an integral part of pected, and as viewers we are struck even the Enlightenment, the movement of the portrait, resulting in an intentional, today by the powerful result. The inherent which they were leading lights (Fig. 1). graceful and vibrant state of finished immediacy of frontal self-portraiture Both Rousseau and Voltaire are smiling – unfinish. Thus, from an early stage the becomes even stronger when the artist “the smile of reason”, to borrow Kenneth portraiture of La Tour laid the foundations fuses this with alarming feelings that we Clark’s apt phrase – which humanises for certain traits that have become syn- instantly recognise and instinctively react them, but also, together with the bright onymous with that of Ducreux, although to. gleam in their eyes, embodies brilliance, the former never took the same experi- To properly understand these works insight and independent intellect.2 Here mental and exploratory stance towards and set them in context, we must also look the smile was depicted as both a universal physiognomy as the latter would later do. a little beyond the influence of Maurice facial expression and a physiognomic trait Quentin de La Tour and the Enlighten- integral to complex personalities. The ment. On 28 March 1671 Charles Le Brun embrace of a simple expression such as Revolution and (1619–1690) had addressed the Royal this as a natural part of portraiture relaxed Revolutionising? Academy of Painting and Sculpture con- the inherent formality of the discipline, Ducreux’s closeness to the royal family cerning what he would later call a Méthode humanising it and, thereby, reflecting the made his position quite difficult during the 3 years immediately following the French pour apprendre à dessiner les passions Enlightenment’s central concerns. 10 Revolution. As a result, we find him in (1698). In his address, which he illustra- exile in London in 1791.6 That year, at the ted with drawings, he described the myriad La Tour, Ducreux and expressions that he detected in men and Portraiture: Gracefully Royal Academy of Arts, he exhibited two highly innovative self-portraits, which which he correlated to different types of Unfinished and Perfectly his previous work had hinted at, but animals, “making note of the signs that Imperfect which must still be considered quite asto- mark their natural inclination”, which, of “The smile of reason” and other human- nishing.7 The portraits, titled Surprise and course, was the basis for the notion of and 11 ising expressions quickly became an inte- Surprise Mixte [sic] with Terror, represent belief in physiognomy. Ducreux must

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Fig. 3 Joseph Ducreux (1735–1802), Self-Portrait, Called Le Silence (the Silence), Fig. 4 Joseph Ducreux (1735–1802), Self-Portrait, Called La Surprise (the 1790s. Oil on canvas, 66.5 x 52.5 cm. Purchase: Sophia Giesecke Fund Surprise), 1790s. Oil on canvas, 66.5 x 52.5 cm. Purchase: Sophia Giesecke Fund. Nationalmuseum, NM 7495. Nationalmuseum, NM 7496.

surely have been aware of this influential commonplace feelings and expressions in meeting and the works of Messerschmidt treatise and perhaps it sparked a certain his own self-portraits from actual charac- had any influence on Ducreux, it did not curiosity in the artist, leading him onto the ter – conditioned or – defined physiogno- really show, at least not in full, until he exploratory path that resulted in his pro- mies, the latter of which were otherwise painted his self-portraits in the 1790s. ducing new types of self-portraits. What common in his regular portraits. There are also some marked differences Ducreux is trying to achieve is different, An artist who produced works com- between the two. As Messerschmidt’s however, so much so in fact that, as the ad- parable to these paintings by Ducreux was works are three-dimensional, the almost jective “physiognomic” is so closely linked the Austrian sculptor Franz Xaver Messer- scientific aspects of how he captured dif- to views such as Le Brun’s, it can to some schmidt (1736–1783). As Michael Yonan ferent facial expressions become much extent be considered a misnomer in des- has pointed out, there is a possibility that more pronounced. The sense that the cribing the special character of Ducreux’s Ducreux and Messerschmidt met while the feelings are acted out, even exaggerated, work as a whole. In painting these parti- former was on a mission to Vienna to paint is also stronger in his work. Comparable cular works, it is as if he is instead trying the portrait of the future French queen works by Ducreux are frontal self-portraits to differentiate, even extricate, universal Marie Antoinette.12 But if this supposed executed in a two-dimensional medium

25 Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum Volume 26:2, 2019 ACQUISITIONS/JOSEPH DUCREUX’S SELF-PORTRAITURE which, in this case, and to all intents and Ducreux was back in Paris to exhibit at The Art Tribune, 10 July 2007. Maurice Quentin de purposes, creates an almost unavoidable the Salon in the autumn of 1791. He again La Tour, Portrait of Voltaire, NMB 1946. 3. Clark 1969. Rykner 2007. “The Smile of Reason: interaction between the portrait and the showed self-portraits of this kind, which Evolution of Portrait Painting in Enlightenment viewer. What do we subconsciously imagi- received both positive and negative criti- France, 6: The Smile of Reason and La Tour”, ne has caused this surprise or fear; is it we cism. They seem to have excited interest Art History Today, https://artintheblood.typepad. ourselves as the viewer? We wonder at the and become popular, however, prompting com/art_history_today/2018/05/, (accessed 7 expression as a mirror on ourselves: is this the artist in some cases to create different October 2020). David Wakefield, French Eighteenth-Century Painting, 1984, p. 58. what we ourselves look like when we feel versions of the basic types.16 The two paint- 4. “The Smile of Reason”, Art History Today. those feelings? ings recently acquired by the National- Wakefield 1984. museum are quite clearly later variants of 5. Ange-Laurent de la Live de July, 1762, Comte de Universal Expressions, the Surprise Mixte with Terror exhibited in Caylus, 1763, Choderlos de Laclos; see Lyon 1958, London in 1791 and the Silence exhibited at pp. 161–162, 181, pl. VII. Personal Experience and 6. Ibid., pp. 77–78. the Paris Salon later that year.17 In the first Potential New Paths for 7. Ibid., pp. 77–78, 153, 170–171, 184, 217–218. of the two portraits, the principal features 8. Ibid. Portraiture defining the expression are the wide-open 9. For the Concours de têtes d’expression, also Ducreux’s desire to capture these universal eyes, the gaping mouth and a dramatically called the Prix de M. le Comte de Caylus after its expressions in self-portraits was certainly outstretched right hand (Fig. 4). In the founder, see Procès-verbaux de l’Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture 1648–1793. and primarily a result of an artistic train- second, the artist’s torso is in profile, but ing and inquisitiveness conditioned by the 10. M. Le Brun, Méthode pour apprendre à dessiner his head is turned towards the viewer. His les passions, proposée dans une conference sur Enlightenment, but perhaps the reason right index finger is raised to his mouth to l’expression générale et particuliere, par, premier it arose exactly when it did was also a indicate silence (Fig. 3). In both portraits, peintre du roi, chevalier & directeur de l’Académie reflection of his own direct experiences of the artist is wearing a powdered wig, a Royale de Peinture & de Sculpture, Amsterdam 1702. the turbulent times both leading up to and top hat and a brown coat. As was its wont, following in the wake of the Revolution. 11. Ibid. Procès-verbaux de l’Académie Royale some of the powder has ended up on the de Peinture et de Sculpture 1648–1793, Vol. I, Even if his exile in London was a short one, shoulders and collar of the coat. pp. 358–359. it is perhaps no coincidence that it was When Ducreux, in these works, cap- 12. Michael Yonan, Messerschmidt’s Character during this time that he emphatically took tured universal human emotions through Heads: Maddening Sculpture and the Writing of Art 13 History, New York 2018. his work further in this direction. his own particular physiognomy, he Ducreux produced five basic types 13. Lyon 1958, pp. 77–78, 170–171, 184, 217–218. potentially opened up new paths for Neal Jeffares, “Ducreux, Joseph”, inDictionary of of these self-portraits: Le Rieur (laugh- portraiture, broadening the view of Pastellists Before 1800, http://www.pastellists.com/ ing), Le Bâilleur (yawning), Le Moqueur what could be accomplished by it. It is Articles/Ducreux.pdf, updated 1 October 2020. (mocking), Silence, ou Le Discret (silence, perhaps not surprising that one of these 14. Jeffares, 1 October 2020. Lyon 1958, pp. 152–153, 170–171, 175, “Portrait de Ducreux par or discretion) and La Surprise/La Surpri- self-portraits today has become a popular se en Terreur.14 Although two or three of lui-meme”, cat. nos. 14–19, pl. XVI. meme on the internet, evidence of course 15. Jeffares, 1 October 2020. these involve expressions that could be of the artist’s both timeless and playful 16. Ibid. Lyon 1958, pp. 152–153, 170–171, 175, termed quite calm, all of the portraits are curiosity, well suited to an artistic mind “Portrait de Ducreux par lui-meme”, cat. nos. 14–19, characterised by a pronounced, almost born out of the Enlightenment. pl. XVI. in-your-face, forcefulness. This is perhaps 17. Art Richelieu-Castor-Hara, Drouot, Paris, sale 21 November 2018, lot 38. most evident in the accusatory pose of Le Notes:

Moqueur, which has both been compared 1. Georgette Lyon, Joseph Ducreux (1735–1802): to later military draft posters and seen as a Premier peintre de Marie-Antoinette, sa vie, son depiction of Ducreux contra mundum (Fig. oeuvre, Paris 1958, pp. 23–33. 15 2. Kenneth Clark, Civilisation, television series, 2). In all likelihood these must have been BBC, 1969, Part 10, “The Smile of Reason”, stressful times for Ducreux, and although accompanying book, London 1969, pp. 171–268. these works are meant to represent uni- Maurice Quentin de La Tour, Portrait of Jean- versal expressions, they are still very much Jacques Rousseau, 1753, Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, self-portraits and as such also reflective of Geneva. There are several versions of this portrait, including one in the Musée Jean-Jacques both the artist’s personality and his partic- Rousseau, Montmorency; see Didier Rykner, ular state of mind at the time; perhaps a “A Portrait of Rousseau by Quentin de La Tour tad irritable and nervous as well as playful. acquired by the Musée Jean-Jacques Rousseau”, in

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