4. La Tour and Materialist Physiognomics

Melissa Percival

From The Appearance of Character: Physiognomy and Facial Expression in Eighteenth-Century France (1999), pp. 83-94, doi:10.59860/td.c6c4606

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Part of the book: The Appearance of Character

Melissa Percival

MHRA Texts and Dissertations 47

W. S. Maney & Son Ltd for the Modern Humanities Research Association

EnlightenmentFrenchPhilosophyopen

Abstract.  Maurice-Quentin de La Tour (1704-1788) has more than once been labelled a 'physiognomist'. As one of the most successful and prodigious pastel portraitists of his time, he had uniquely privileged access to the key figures of mid-eighteenth century Paris: Voltaire, Rousseau, Buffon, d'Alembert, Crébillon, the actress Clairon, the composer Rameau, the Maréchal de Saxe and Madame de Pompadour all sat to him.

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