Entitled: "Le pouvoir de l'Eloquence" ("The Power of Eloquence"), caricature of facial expression; group of men, one is reading to the others who are all showing signs of boredom. Color lithograph by Louis-L矇opold Boilly, 1824. A facial expression is one or more motions or positions of the muscles beneath the skin of the face. These movements convey the emotional state of an individual to observers. Facial expressions are a form of nonverbal communication. They are a primary means of conveying social information between humans, but they also occur in most other mammals and some other animal species.