Portrait of Marie-Anne Restout (1704-1784)

Maurice-Quentin de La Tour was one of the greatest pastelists of the 18th century, and the great rival of Jean-Baptiste Perronneau, eleven years his junior. He left his native town to join Jan Jakob Spoede's workshop, where he completed his training under the guidance of Louis de Boullogne and Jean Restout. From 1737 onwards, he specialized in pastel portraiture, a genre and technique that had experienced unprecedented growth since the early 18th century, notably under the impetus of Joseph Vivien (1657-1734) and the Venetian Rosalba Carriera (1675 - 1757). Her brilliant career led her to work not only for the Court, but also for the financiers, intellectuals and artists of her time.

Maurice-Quentin de La Tour remained very attached to Restout, as evidenced by the wonderful portrait of his wife, Marie-Anne Restout (1704-1784), aged 34, which he painted in 1738, ten years after her marriage to the painter.

Herself from a famous family of artists, sister of the painter Noël Hallé, her portrait remained with the family descendants, and in 2010, thanks to the bequest of Henriette Valois, it became one of the museum's major works.

Exhibited at the Salon of 1738 with that of her husband, the two pastels met with considerable success, attracting the admiration of critics who hailed the life emanating from these two effigies. While Jean Restout is depicted as an artist, drawing on a portfolio (work not located), his wife is installed in an interior, in a three-quarter bust, revealing a smiling face imbued with gentleness and simplicity. La Tour chose a very similar composition for another portrait from the same Salon, that of the Marquise de Sesmaisons (Paris, Musée du Louvre), niece of President Rieux, also leaning against the viewer, hands folded. Here, La Tour demonstrates a soft, "caressed" manner, with a mellow finish and a great commitment to rendering subjects realistically, more concerned with truth than with any other artist.