Portrait of Madame de Pompadour
by Maurice Quentin de La Tour, 1755
Artwork Details
Details
- Year
- 1755
- Medium
- Pastel on paper
- Size
- 175 cm × 128 cm
Cite or Embed This Work
APA · MLA · Chicago1-click academic citation and embeddable “On View” museum badge for articles, syllabi, and research.
Maurice Quentin de La Tour spent three years on this monumental pastel portrait, completed in 1755. Madame de Pompadour, Louis XV's influential mistress, appears full-length in a sumptuous French gown adorned with lace and bows. Books surround her, including banned works by Voltaire and the Encyclopédie.
Only her face was drawn from life, on a separate sheet later joined to seven others. The pastel demonstrates La Tour's mastery of texture: pearls, fabrics, paper. Pompadour positioned herself as patron of the Enlightenment philosophers, choosing these controversial books deliberately. Now at the Louvre Museum in Paris.
More by Maurice Quentin de La Tour
View all →P
Portrait of King Louis XV
Maurice Quentin de La Tour
Louvre, Paris, Paris
J
Jean Le Rond d'Alembert
Maurice Quentin de La Tour
Louvre, Paris, Paris
P
Portrait of Maurice of Saxony
Maurice Quentin de La Tour
Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden, Dresden
M
Madame de Pompadour
Maurice Quentin de La Tour
Louvre, Paris, Paris
Also at Louvre, Paris
View all →Sculpture
A
Artemis of Versailles
Ancient Roman (Unknown), -100
Louvre, Paris, Paris
T
The Concert: Singer and Theorbo Player
Gerard ter Borch
Louvre, Paris, Paris
T
The Combat of Mars and Minerva
Jacques-Louis David
Louvre, Paris, Paris
M
Madonna and Sleeping Child with Three Angels
Bernardino Luini
Louvre, Paris, Paris
Related Works
Works that share an artist, movement, museum, genre, palette or theme with Portrait of Madame de Pompadour.
- Same artist
- Same movement
Portrait of Philibert Orry de Vignory
Maurice Quentin de La Tour
- Same artist
- Same movement
Portrait of Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Maurice Quentin de La Tour
- Same artist
- Same movement
Portrait of Duval de l'Epinoy
Maurice Quentin de La Tour
- Same movement
- Same genre
Portrait of Mary Adelaide of France as Diana
Jean-Marc Nattier
- Same movement
- Same museum
Breakfast
François Boucher
- Same movement
- Same genre
Portrait of Omai
Joshua Reynolds, 1776
- Same movement
- Same museum
Diana getting out of her bath
François Boucher
- Same movement
- Same museum
Diana Leaving the Bath
François Boucher, 1742
- Same movement
- Same genre
Portrait of Heneage Lloyd and his Sister, Lucy
Thomas Gainsborough
- Same movement
- Same museum
Pierrot (Gilles)
Jean-Antoine Watteau, 1719
- Same movement
- Same museum
The Bathers
Jean-Honoré Fragonard
- Same movement
- Same museum
Pilgrimage to Cythera
Jean-Antoine Watteau, 1717
About Portrait of Madame de Pompadour
Maurice Quentin de La Tour, the great French Rococo pastellist, created this work between 1752 and 1755. He painted Voltaire, Rousseau, and Louis XV, but this is his most ambitious portrait.
The pastel hangs at the Louvre Museum in Paris in the Department of Graphic Arts. At 175 x 128 cm, it's one of the largest pastels ever made.
The books include Voltaire's Henriade, Montesquieu's Spirit of Laws, and volume IV of Diderot's Encyclopédie, which had been banned in 1752. Pompadour presented herself as an ally of Enlightenment philosophers.
Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson (1721-1764), the Marquise de Pompadour, was Louis XV's influential mistress. She patronized the arts and Enlightenment thinkers, wielding considerable political influence at the French court.
Own Art Like This
Luxury wall art with the same mood and energy. Gallery-quality canvas, no museum crowds.
Browse Collection