Figure 32: Natural laughter by the voluntary contraction of the two large zygomatics and the lower palpebral orbicularis
Guillaume-Benjamin-Amand Duchenne (de Boulogne) (French, 1806–1875)
Adrien Tournachon (French, 1825–1903)
c. 1856, printed 1862
- Medium
- Albumen print from glass plate negative
- Classification
- Photograph
- Dimensions
- Image: 15.1 x 11 cm (5 15/16 x 4 5/16 in.); Paper: 22.7 x 17 cm (8 15/16 x 6 11/16 in.); Mounted: 41 x 27.6 cm (16 1/8 x 10 7/8 in.)
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Photography
- Credit line
- Severance and Greta Millikin Trust
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
Duchenne embarked on the first scientific, systematic exploration of the physiology of human facial expression and hoped, through photographs of the experiments, to teach artists how to portray those emotions. Here, he has photographed a subject’s natural smile and described the muscles creating it. In subsequent photographs, he used an electrode to contract one of the muscles that convey that same emotion.
