Physionotraces: Galerie de portraits de la Révolution à L'Empire
Grandjouan, Kate (2012) Physionotraces: Galerie de portraits de la Révolution à L'Empire. BSECS.
Abstract
Online review of an exhibition organised by the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris about the 'physionotrace' small, mechanically produced portraits, issued in sets of twelve prints and available in colour or black and white. These 18th-century 'photomatons' signalled the mechanisation and also the democratisation of portraiture. Sittings were booked in advance and secured by deposit. 'Physionotraces' were a craze of the French Revolution and Empire. The method was exported to Hamburg and taken to America; it was eventually eclipsed by the invention of the daguerreotype.
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