Le Discret, Joseph Ducreux

Exhibition Label:
"Corpus," Apr-2012, Kris Ercums
By the time the French Revolution broke out in 1789, Joseph Ducreux already had a thriving portrait practice in Paris. In 1774 he had been appointed official court portraitist to Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette. In the wake of the Revolution, he was forced to find new patrons and reinvent himself as a relevant figure in a vastly different political and cultural milieu. In this self-portrait, Le Discret (or The Silence), exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1791, the artist raises his finger to his pursed lips, urging the viewer to be silent. Apparently influenced by contemporary theories of physiognomy, he depicted himself in a range of exaggerated gestures and displaying various emotions and facial expressions. By showing himself yawning, laughing, crying, and pointing a mocking finger at the viewer, Ducreux engaged directly with his audience in a manner that was unusual for the time.

Archive Label 2003:
In 1791, as the Revolution continued to rampage through the streets of Paris, Louis XVI unsuccessfully attempted to flee France. Joseph Ducreux, court painter to the King and Queen of France, was also in danger of losing his head. Fearful for his life, the artist fled France on January 12. Ducreux emigrated to London and had hopes of gaining British patrons. However, Ducreux found little favor in England and returned to France on August 15. It is speculated that upon his return the only thing that kept him alive was his allegiance with revolutionary artist Jacques-Louis David.

In works such as Le Discret (or The Silence) Ducreux deviated from his traditional role as court painter. He astonished his contemporaries by attempting to categorize and define the various expressions of human visage and personality. Although these works did not enjoy immediate success, they played an important role in the developing interest in physiognomic studies in eighteenth-century Europe.