Portrait of Democritus

Antoine Coypel's 1692 portrait of Democritus is a meditation on laughter as philosophy. Democritus of Abdera, the ancient Greek atomist, was known in the early modern tradition as the 'laughing philosopher' — in contrast to Heraclitus the 'weeping philosopher' — and this contrast became a popular subject for Baroque painters exploring the range of human emotional and intellectual response. Coypel painted this canvas at twenty years old, the year he became Academician, reflecting extraordinary precocity and his early fascination with expressive figure painting. The laughing philosopher had been addressed by Rubens, Jordaens, and Rembrandt in the northern tradition, and Coypel's French academic version draws on this lineage while displaying the characteristic elegance and psychological subtlety of the Paris academie. Now in the Louvre, the painting is among the earliest examples of Coypel's lifelong interest in combining classical subjects with vivid physiognomic expression.

Coypel renders Democritus with a technically assured combination of smooth flesh painting and freely handled drapery. The expression — an open, amused laugh — is captured with physiognomic accuracy that reflects the young painter's study of Le Brun's Expressions and direct observation from life.