The Nadars, a photographic legend

The Nadars

fr

Laughter

Charles Le Brun, 1727

Expressions of the Soul's Passions, Represented in Several Engraved Heads, based on drawings by the late Mr. Le Brun, pub'd. by J. Audran (Paris), plate 9
With an atlas composed of 74 electro-physiological photographs taken for the most part between 1852 and 1856 by Dr. Duchenne de Boulogne, with the assistance of Adrien Tournachon, a.k.a. "Nadar Jne" ("Nadar the Younger"). Albumen paper prints
BnF, Arsenal Library, STORAGE FOL-S-286
© Bibliothèque nationale de France
“Produced by joy mixed with surprise, laughter makes the eyebrows rise towards the middle of the eye, and bend towards the sides of the nose; the eyes are almost shut and sometimes appear wet, or shed tears, which make no alteration in the face; the mouth half open, shows the teeth; the corners of the mouth drawn back, cause a wrinkle in the cheeks, which appear so swelled as to hide the eyes in some measure; the nostrils are open, and all the face is of a red colour.”