Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Joseph Fourier

Joseph Fourier

Voting period is over. Please don't add any new votes. Voting period ends on 20 Jan 2022 at 03:17:33 (UTC)

Reason: Joseph Fourier, a very prominent mathematician. Orphaned at the age of nine in 1770s, his work is used today on anything that has to do with motion, vibration, impact, etc. (examples: quantum physics, ocean waves, spaceships, digital signals, radio waves, car brakes, engines). His work significantly advanced physics, engineering and mathematics. For details see [1] [2] [3]. The image needs a bit of restoration which I will do if this nomination gets a couple of supports.
Articles in which this image appears: Joseph Fourier, History of climate change science
FP category for this image: Wikipedia:Featured pictures/People/Science and engineering
Creator: ~~Louis-Léopold Boilly~~ update per below: Julien-Léopold Boilly

Support as nominator – Bammesk (talk) 03:17, 10 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
I'm always a tiny bit dubious when colour is on an engraving, because a modern colonisation is by necessity speculative and might add copyright - but, at the same time, people did colour in engravings - I have several examples which all predate technology for coloured plates - and I'm not seeing any thing that makes it unbelievable as historic colouring: it's good, but not excessively good. Would've been nice to have an obvious flaw in the colour to fully assure me, but I compared it to some other examples, and... I can buy it. Plus, this is pretty minimal, so even if it is modern, it probably wouldn't rise to the level of copyrightable: flat face colour (the engraving provides highlights and shadows) and a tiny bit of lip colour. As for levels and balance, the white of the page is very white, but that's fine, I think. Support. Adam Cuerden ^(talk)_{Has about 7.5% of all FPs} 20:46, 12 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Support GrantHenninger (talk) 18:44, 14 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Comment Doesn't really look like the painting, bust and grave on his page? Artistic license? Was he fatter when this engraving was made? --Janke | Talk 19:29, 14 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
- Not as fat as in the (I think more famous) caricature. —David Eppstein (talk) 07:14, 15 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  - Magic word: "caricature"... ;-) --Janke | Talk 11:14, 15 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Google search shows the engraving is the predominately used image [4]. See Adam's comments above about contemporary claims. Bammesk (talk) 18:36, 15 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Support. I'm not generally a fan of 19th-century engravings as portraits in our articles, because a lot of the time they were not drawn from life and there is no reason to believe they are anything close to the actual appearance of the subject (see Wikipedia:Historical portraits and pictures). This one is an exception, in that we know Boilly did draw Fourier from life. It has plenty of EV as the correct choice of lead image for an important topic, and the quality is good enough. —David Eppstein (talk) 22:07, 15 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
- Only now I am confused about something. This engraving is credited to painter Louis-Léopold Boilly. The caricature is credited to engraver Julien Léopold Boilly [fr], his son. This engraving is signed "J. Boilly". Is it misattributed? —David Eppstein (talk) 09:00, 16 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Seems likely. Barring strong other information, I'd go with the name on the engraving. You do occassionally get some weird chains of art in engravings - close copies of other people's work - and it's possible the artist's singer is a work by his father, but nonetheless, there's literally no evidence for that. Adam Cuerden ^(talk)_{Has about 7.5% of all FPs} 12:41, 16 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I updated the file description per the signature on the artwork and the info at this source: https://wellcomecollection.org/works/b4qh352u. Feel free to update and adjust the file description if other reliable sources emerge. Bammesk (talk) 14:48, 16 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Support.--Vulp❯❯❯here! 17:46, 16 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
I uploaded and replaced it with a restored version. Bammesk (talk) 00:06, 17 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
FWIW, another opinion at Commons regarding 'artistic copyright': Link. Bammesk (talk) 04:47, 1 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Promoted File:Fourier2 - restoration1.jpg --Armbrust ^{The Homunculus} 05:29, 20 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]