John Tinney after Charles Le Brun

[PASSIONS of the SOUL]
Desire [&] Terror

7.5 x 11 inches

Two etched copper plate engravings by John Tinney after the drawings of the famous French artist, Charles le Brun. These plates were published in London in 1730 and sold by Tinney at his shop in Fleet Street.

Beneath the illustrations are lengthy blocks of text in which we are told how to contort the face to produce the desired effect. Such instruction would have been of assistance to artists attempting to make their sitters look and feel in a particular way and also for actors adopting a role upon the stage.

Charles le Brun was one of the most accomplished and influential artists of seventeenth century France, best remembered for his magnificent work at the Palace of Versailles. He was also a highly regarded art theorist. Many painters of the Renaissance were aware of the expressive qualities of the face and sought to record them through careful observation and imitation. Le Brun lectured on this very subject at the Academie Royale in Paris in the 1670's. Tinney, a successful London engraver and publisher reproduced these studies for the benefit of his English market.