Joseph Ducreux
French, 1735-1802
Self-Portrait, Yawning, 1783
Oil on canvas
In a group of self-portraits, highly finished and public in scale, Ducreux experimented with the expressive limitations of portraiture. Here the traditional format, in combination with the radical informality of pose, is startling, making the viewer see the human face afresh, reconsider the nature of portraiture, and, perhaps, laugh.
