Portret van René Descartes 1816 - 1831

Pierre Eugène Aubert created this print of René Descartes sometime before 1847. Born in the late 18th century, Aubert operated in a post-revolutionary France still grappling with questions of identity and authority. Here, Descartes is framed within an oval, a formal visual language that evokes classical portraiture and perhaps the weight of tradition. Descartes' gaze is direct, but it’s hard to interpret its emotional content. Does it convey confidence or confrontation? The text below, which states Descartes birth and death information, attempts to further clarify his position as a figure of the Enlightenment. Yet, by Aubert's time, the Enlightenment’s promises had been tarnished by the Reign of Terror. As such, we can read the portrait as a symbolic representation of France's struggle to reconcile its revolutionary ideals with its history, and the complex relationship between the individual and the state.