Maurice Quentin de La Tour

Maurice Quentin de La Tour , 1704-88, French portraitist working in pastel. From 1737 to 1773 he exhibited at the Salon portraits of considerable technical virtuosity and psychological penetration. They brought him an immense and continuing popularity. Among his famous sitters were Louis XV, Mme de Pompadour, Voltaire, Rousseau, and Marshal de Saxe. Most of his work is in the Louvre and in the museum of his native Saint-Quentin.

Bibliography: See biography by A. Bury (1973).

La Tour, Maurice-Quentin de (1704–88). With Perronneau the most celebrated and the most successful French pastel portraitist of the 18th century. His portraits are remarkable for their beauty of colour, their mastery of texture, and above all their brilliant handling of expression, which gives them a feeling of great vivacity. La Tour himself said, ‘I penetrate into the depths of my subjects without their knowing it, and capture them whole.’ He portrayed many of the most famous men and women of his day and in 1750 he became portraitist to Louis XV. He made a fortune from his work and late in life he used much of it for philanthropic purposes, in both Paris and his native St-Quentin. The museum there has a good collection of his work.

La Tour, Maurice-Quentin de (b Saint-Quentin, 5 Sept. 1704; d Saint-Quentin, 17 Feb. 1788). With Perronneau the most celebrated and the most successful French pastel portraitist of the 18th century. His portraits are remarkable for their beauty of colour, their mastery of texture, and above all their brilliant handling of expression, which gives them a feeling of great vivacity. La Tour himself said, ‘I penetrate into the depths of my subjects without their knowing it, and capture them whole.’ He portrayed many of the most famous men and women of his day and in 1750 he became portraitist to Louis XV. He made a fortune from his work and late in life he used much of it for philanthropic purposes, in both Paris and his native Saint-Quentin. The museum there has a good collection of his work.