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.
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 FPs20:46, 12 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 | Talk19:29, 14 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 FPs12:41, 16 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]