Joseph Ducreux

Joseph Ducreux was a French painter best known today for his lively, unconventional self-portraits. Born in 1735, he was a successful portraitist in the years before the French Revolution and even painted the royal family. But his most memorable works break with the stiff formality of the time, showing himself grinning, yawning, or pointing directly out at the viewer with startling immediacy.

He was fascinated by facial expression and tried to capture fleeting moods and gestures rarely seen in formal portraits. Centuries later, one of his cheeky, pointing self-portraits became a popular internet meme, giving him surprising modern fame. Ducreux is remembered for bringing humor, personality, and a very human liveliness to the art of portraiture.