Terror mixed with pain, torture

1854-1856, printed 1862

Two men apply rod-like devices to a third man, whose chin is pulled back, mouth wide open, and eyebrows angled sharply upward in this vertical black and white photograph. Printed in tones of golden brown and black, the bare chest of the central man and his white shirt stand out against the shadowy background. To our left, one man wears a black vest over a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows. He holds rods to either side of the central man’s neck. To our right, another man wears a dark suit, white tie, and spectacles perched at the end of his nose. He holds two rods to the central man’s eyebrows. All three men appear to have pale skin and dark hair with prominent mutton chops.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

Associated Artworks

See all 31 artworks

Weeping, tears of pity (left); Relaxed face (right)

Guillaume-Benjamin-Amant Duchenne (de Boulogne), Adrien Tournachon

1854

Scornful disgust (left); Scornful laughter (right)

Guillaume-Benjamin-Amant Duchenne (de Boulogne)

1854

Surprise

Guillaume-Benjamin-Amant Duchenne (de Boulogne)

1854


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Alphonse Bertillon, Paris; by descent to Pascal Vincent-Bertillon, Paris; NGA purchase (through Denis Canguilhem, Paris), 2015.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

2015

  • Celebrating Photography at the National Gallery of Art: Recent Gifts, Washington, DC, November 1, 2015–February 28, 2016

2019

  • The Eye of the Sun: Nineteenth-Century Photographs from the National Gallery of Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2019, unnumbered catalogue.

Inscriptions

upper center of mount in black letterpress: Électro-Physiologie Photographique. / Fig. 64.; lower center-right of mount in black letterpress: Duchenne (de Boulogne), phot.

Wikidata ID

Q64154681


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