Joseph Ducreux (1735–1802) was a French artist known for his expressive and unconventional self-portraits. Unlike many portraitists of his time, who adhered to strict formal conventions, Ducreux infused his works with humor, exaggerated expressions, and an almost modern sense of personality.
Born in Nancy, Ducreux may have trained with his father, who was also a painter. When Ducreux went to Paris in 1760, he trained as the only student of the pastelist Maurice Quentin de La Tour, who specialized in portraiture. Jean-Baptiste Greuze was an important influence on Ducreux’s oil technique.
In 1769, Ducreux was sent to Vienna in order to paint a miniature of Marie Antoinette before she left the city in 1770 and married Louis XVI of France. Ducreux was made a baron and premier peintre de la reine (First Painter to the Queen) in rewards for his services. Ducreux was given this appointment by Marie-Antoinette even though he was not a member of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, which had been founded in 1648.
At the outbreak of the French Revolution, Ducreux traveled to London. There he drew the last portrait ever made of Louis XVI before the king’s execution.
Ducreux specialized in portrait painting. He completed his early portraits in pastel, including those of connoisseurs Pierre-Jean Mariette, the Comte de Caylus and Ange-Laurent de la Live de July. These works may have been copies after De La Tour. Although Ducreux cataloged his works in list form from 1760 onward, he rarely signed his paintings. Thus, many of his works remain erroneously attributed to other artists.
Other portraits by Ducreux include those of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos and Maria Theresa of Austria, as well as those mentioned above of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Ducreux also made several well-known self-portraits in the 1780s and 1790s, including one in 1783 in which he painted himself in the middle of a large yawn. In another, Portrait de l'artiste sous les traits d'un moqueur (c. 1793, Louvre), the artist guffaws and points at the viewer.
With these self-portraits Ducreux attempted to break free from the constraints of traditional portraiture. His interest in physiognomy—the belief that a person's outer appearance, especially the shape and lines of their face, could reveal their inner character—influenced him in creating his warm and individualistic works. For example, his portrait Le Discret (c. 1790) depicts a man with a timorous facial expression requesting silence by pressing his finger against his mouth, gesturing by which he appears to be demanding discretion or prudence.
Through unusual body language and physical appearances, these portraits parallel the vivacious tronies of Dutch Golden Age painting and the “character heads” of contemporary Austrian sculptor Franz Xaver Messerschmidt (1736–1783), some of whose busts were self-portraits with extreme expressions.
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