Research Centre on Miniature portraits and French Iconography
Pre-inventory of French physionotraces. 
Students at a PhD level are welcomed to contact us when miniature painting / miniature painter is part of their research.
Director : Nathalie Lemoine-Bouchard
Main research project for 2010-2012 is a pre-inventory
of French physionotraces.
Chef of project : Annie Delatte-Regolle
A few words about physionotrace
This is a process of portraits reproduction. First drawn nature size, they are then reduced to a smaller size thanks to a system close to the pantographe (see nearby drawing by Quenedey) and engraved of a copper surface. Clients were posing in profile and came back a few days later to pick up the copper plaque and a set of 12 portraits engraved on paper. These multiples were cheap and enjoyed a huge success.
A remarquable source for the iconography of the French Society circa 1784-1830s.
Most of the notabilities used the physionotrace process : Royal family, deputies, actors, merchants and businessmen visiting Paris. Physionotrace is then a precious source for the iconography of the French Society. Because they were made in multiples (12 or more copies), there are still many of these engraved portraits, often cut under the line and placed in medallions like miniature portraits.
The inventor and his successors in France
Gilles-Louis Chrétien (Versailles, 5 Feb. – Paris, 1811), a musician, miniature painter, drawer, engraver, invented the physionotrace. He exposed portraits made with his machine at the Paris Salon in 1793, 1795, 1796, 1798, 1799. He then lived in the Paris St-Honoré aera, in different locations : cloître St Honoré, house of citoyen Benard (1793), then cour St Honoré house of the bookseller Gouzi (1796), then rue St Honoré facing the Oratoire, n° 45. He was in association with Edmé Quenedey for several years, he then settled in Palais Royal where Bouchardy (see further) succeded him.
Edmé Quenedey or Kennedy (Les Riceys-le-Haut, Aube, 17 December 1756 – Paris, 15 February 1830), a student of Devosges in Dijon, was an engraver, miniature painter and drawer with the physionotrace, a machine he inhanced (see his drawing). He teamed up with his inventor, Gilles-Louis Chrétien, and worked in Bruxelles, Genf, Paris, Hamburg.
The first portraits, until 1796 and the departure of Quenedey to Hamburg (1796-1801), have been listed (letter + number) by the artist who took note of the sitters’ names in a phonetic manner on the copy he kept for himself. After 1796, portraits are not numbered anymore but there is sometimes a date after the address Quenedy used to engraved under the portrait. During the Restauration years, Quenedey engraved profiles on cooper following the aquatint process of Janinet and sold his portraits either engraved like that in colour or coloured by hand.
René Hennequin, Quennedy’s biographer, listed 850 portraits with physionotrace for the first year of exploitation (1788-89), catalogued portraits until 1796 and suggested identifications based on manuscript mentions. Latter portraits have not been listed. Regarding the already listed portraits, it seems useful to check the past identifications with the ways and sources available today.
An important collection of about 3000 physionotraces coming from Quenedey was divided in 3 lots, end of 19th – beginning of 20th Century: one third went to the Department of Engravings, Bibliothèque nationale de France, one third to the Carnavalet Museum, Paris, one third to the engraving seller Georges Mas, Paris, grandfather of the actual owner of Galerie Mas, Paris, who contributed to the inventory of physionotraces done by R. Hennequin.
Bouchardy (active in 1808-1840) succeeded Chrétien at Palais Royal where he continued to use the physionotrace machine. From 1808 and on, his physionotraces are signed under the trait, without a firstname « Bouchardy, succr de Chrétien au Palais Royal ». His whole production is not listed and has been dispersed : the inventory has to be patiently done.
Galerie Mas, partner of this project
We are grateful to Mrs Colette Mas who opened for us the collection acquired by her grandfather and who kindly allowed us to take photos of the physionotraces left and of those acquired in the past years which are on sale at Galerie Mas, 48, rue Lafayette, 75009 Paris.
Help required
Lots of physionotraces are alas not identified on the copies we found and register in our inventory ; we would like to mobilise collectors and researchers who own / know of physionotraces to help us: do not hesitate to contact us if you see French physionotraces (sometimes they are printed in books), identified or not, and to send us good photos with size.
SIRET : 515 076 081 00014