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The Patrick Montgomery Collection
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Rene Hennequin - Les Portraits au Physionotrace, 1932
Rene Hennequin - Les Portraits au Physionotrace, 1932

Maker: Rene Hennequin
Born: France
Active: France
Medium: book
Size: 7 3/4 in x 10 in
Location:

Object No. 2021.621
Shelf: B-45

Publication: Hennequin, Rene, Les Portraits au Physionotrace, Catalogue, J.L. Paton, Troyes, 1932

Other Collections:

Notes: Edmé Quenedey des Ricets (sometimes Edmé Quenedey) (born Riceys-le-Haut, December 17, 1756 – died Paris, February 16, 1830) was a French painter and engraver, known most especially for his miniatures. One of a family of eight children, he was initially destined for the priesthood, but studied instead at Dijon; he began his career as a restorer of pictures. Upon the invention of the physionotrace he took up that tool for making portraits. With his wife, Marie-Madeleine Pella, he had two children, Adèle and Aglaë; the latter later became an assistant to his father.

A Frenchman named Gilles-Louis Chrétien invented the "physionotrace" in 1783–84 to aid in the production of silhouette portraits which became popular during the reign of Louis XIV. Chrétien's partner, Edme Quenedey, made a drawing of the instrument in 1788, which now sits in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Chrétien's device used the mechanics of the pantograph to transmit the tracing (via an eyepiece) of the subject's profile silhouette to an engraving needle. Thus it enabled the production of multiple portrait copies.

The "physiognotrace" technique employed by Saint-Mémin for his portraits had been invented in 1786 by Gilles-Louis Chrétien, and was soon thereafter exploited commercially in Paris by Chrétien in partnership with Edme Quenedey. The Chrétien-Quenedey "physiognotraces" became immensely popular in the final years of the Old Régime and at the beginning of the Revolution, and there were soon to be many imitators. The machine employed by Chrétien and Quenedey enabled them to trace, by means of a sighting device combined with a pantograph, a life-size profile portrait of the sitter. This first outline sketch was then filled in by hand and was, strictly speaking, the physiogno. trace portrait. From this portrait a reduction was engraved on a copperplate, from which prints were then made. The customer usually received the "original" life-size crayon portrait, the engraved copperplate, and a dozen prints.

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Taken on: October 17, 2021
Sets appears in:   • Physionotrace Engravings    • Books On The History of Photography    
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