In March 1871, Darwin also contacted the German-born painter and illustrator, Josef Wolf (1820–99), a specialist on animals who had arrived in London in 1848 and had already illustrated many natural history publications. Darwin had asked the Regent’s…
Engravings were more expensive to print than photographs: but animal expressions were more difficult to capture. The most famous of the artists Darwin engaged to illustrate Expression was Briton Riviere, an animal painter who in 1871 was working for…
Darwin met the Swedish photographer Oscar Rejlander, famous for his character studies, in 1871. Rejlander, who was based in London, went on to provide twenty of the images published in Expression, more than half the photographs in the book.
'I am, however, now rich in photographs, for I have found a photographer in London. Rejlander, who for years has had a passion for photographing all sorts of chance expressions exhibited on various occasions, especially by children, and taken…
In 1862, the French physiologist Guillaume-Benjamin Duchenne published a photographically illustrated study of facial expression. By applying an electric current, Duchenne was able to mechanically produce expressions, and to sustain them long enough…
Darwin discussed Duchenne’s work in correspondence with the psychiatrist and amateur photographer James Crichton-Browne who became another collaborator to Expression.
Darwin made use of a worldwide network of scientists and non-scientists to gather information. In 1867, he began to send out handwritten questionnaires about human expression, in particular to those who were in contact with non-European peoples.…