Cool History: Before Memes Were A Thing, This 1700s Painter Was Doing Them

If only the internet existed in the late 1700s, Joseph Ducreux could have been the first-ever memelord. Ducreux (1735–1802) was a French portrait painter with king-level clients and meme-level instincts. While everyone else painted marble statues in human form, he painted his own expressions. Ducreux was interested in the study of physiognomy — the art […]

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