Figure 15: Mediation, mental concentration
1854–56, printed 1862
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
Image (Oval): 28.3 × 20.3 cm (11 1/8 × 8 in.) Sheet: 29.9 × 22.1 cm (11 3/4 × 8 11/16 in.) Mount: 40.1 × 28.5 cm (15 13/16 × 11 1/4 in.)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, The Buddy Taub Foundation Gift, Dennis A. Roach and Jill Roach, Directors; Harris Brisbane Dick and William E. Dodge Funds; and W. Bruce and Delaney H. Lundberg Gift, 2013
Accession Number
2013.173.8
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the mid-19th century, French neurologist Guillaume-Benjamin-Amandenne de Boulogne revolutionized the study of human emotion through photography. Collaborating with photographer Adrien Tournachon (Nadar), he produced *Figure 15: Mediation mental concentration* between 1854 and 1856, printed as an albumen silver print a glass negative in 1862. This oval portrait captures a male subject in a state of deep mental focus, part of Duchenne's groundbreaking series *Mécanisme de la physionomie humaine* (Mechanism of Human Facial Expression). Duchenne used faradic electrical stimulation to provoke a...
About the Artist
Guillaume-Benjamin-Amand Duchenne de Boulogne|Adrien Tournachon (French|French) · 1806 |1825 –1875 |1903
French, 1806–1875|French, 1825–1903