Drawing: Expressions of Emotion (Hate or Jealousy, Anger, Desire, Physical Pain), from Encyclopédie
1762/77
Medium
Etching with engraving on cream laid paper
Dimensions
Image: 31.7 × 21.5 cm (12 1/2 × 8 1/2 in.); Plate: 35.5 × 22.5 cm (14 × 8 7/8 in.); Sheet: 40 × 26 cm (15 3/4 × 10 1/4 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
148255
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Le Brun’s depictions of the strongest passions offer a darker side of human emotions. In his lecture he argued that hatred and jealousy could be indistinguishable, emphasizing the livid, enflamed flesh of those caught in the thrall of these emotions, and therefore the Encyclopédie does not attempt to distinguish them. Anger adopts a similarly turbulent manifestation, with the glare of desire retaining a steely focus. Finally, the man writhing in acute pain offers a passionate reaction to a physi...
About the Artist
A. J. Defehrt · 1708–1779
A. J. Defehrt (1723–1779) was a French draftsman, painter, and engraver whose career is best defined by his substantial contributions to one of the most ambitious publishing projects of the European Enlightenment: the illustrated plates of Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert's Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. This monumental project, which aimed t...