I remembered that I was going to do a short post on a lecture from Cardiff University on Physionotrace portraits.
It’s a technique developed in France in the 1780s for drawing a silhouette created by a machine in a frame, which could then be used to produce multiple copies. Robespierre comes into it as there is a portrait of him using this method, which reveals his characteristic tip tilted nose. Apart from enabling greater availability of likenesses before photography, portraits done this way were closer to a true portrayal of the subject and can be used to test the accuracy of subsequent art work, some produced well after the death of the original subject. Famous people could circulate copies for publicity purposes and they were also used for medical records.
Apparently Robespierre was considered very good looking and had fan girls – just like a contemporary pop star – who packed the public gallery when he was speaking. Certainly many of the portraits were very dashing. The lecturer – unfortunately I can’t find a note of her name, but I think it was Dr MM Gilchrist – showed how an original could be manipulated to produce other portraits – reversed, given different style clothes and/or tinted with pastels for numerous variations. The further they got from the original the less distinct the likeness became.
It was an interesting evening. I always like to learn things about art. You never know what might be fuel for a new idea. Will I ever use this in a book? At the moment I don’t think so, but who knows what the subconscious might throw up in the future.