Portrait de l’artiste sous les traits d’un moqueur, Joseph DuCreux, 1793
It’s quite annoying to me that despite this image’s widespread internet popularity, very few people actually know anything about Joseph DuCreux or any of his other works. For one thing, it’s a self-portrait and for another he’s actually quite interesting; his works were an attempt to try and break free of usual stuffy portrait poses and lack of emotion by portraying subjects (often himself) in more interesting or passionate states.
Self-portrait, 1783
Le discret, 1790
So yes, enjoy your memes but also enjoy the fact that Joseph DuCreux is pretty awesome beyond his current memetic status.
(via davidthestrange)
