Jean Le Rond d'Alembert

Maurice Quentin de La Tour produced this pastel portrait of philosopher Jean Le Rond d'Alembert in 1753. The work shows d'Alembert with a lively, almost laughing expression, which was unusual for formal portraits of the period. Most portraits of intellectuals depicted them with stern, serious faces. La Tour chose to capture something different: the warmth and wit of his subject.

D'Alembert was one of the leading minds of the French Enlightenment. He co-edited the famous Encyclopédie with Denis Diderot and made significant contributions to mathematics and physics. At the time this portrait was made, he held memberships in the French Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society of London, and the Berlin Academy. La Tour exhibited the work at the Salon of 1753, where it drew considerable attention.

The artist worked from a preparatory study painted from life, now held at the Musée Antoine-Lécuyer in Saint-Quentin. For the finished version, he adjusted the direction of d'Alembert's gaze. The portrait remained in d'Alembert's possession until his death in 1783, when it passed to the philosopher Condorcet. Today it hangs in the Louvre in Paris, displayed in the Sully wing on the second floor.