Lot 137: Attributed to Maurice-Quentin de la Tour Saint-Quentin 1704 - 1788 , Portrait of François-Augustin Paradis de Moncrif (1687-1770) pastel, laid down on canvas

pastel, laid down on canvas

measurements note 435 by 451mm

Possibly E. Dréolle de Nodon, Éloge biographique de Maurice-Quentin de La Tour...suivi de notes et documents historiques, Paris 1856, p. 140;
Possibly E. Fleury and G. Brière, Catalogue des pastels de M.-Q. de La Tour. Collection de Saint-Quentin et Musée du Louvre, Paris 1920, no. 83 (as sitter unknown);
N. Jeffares, Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, London 2006, p. 298, reproduced

This fine pastel is the only known surviving version of La Tour's portrait, the composition of which is recorded in a painted copy at Versailles, inscribed with the sitter's name and dated 1733.υ1 An engraved copy by L.-J. Cathélin is also known.υ2 According to Besnard, a pastel portrait of Moncrif was exhibited at the Salon in 1748, no. 83 (loc. cit.). 1. See C. Constans, Musée National du Château du Versailles: Les Peintures, Paris 1995, vol. I, no. 3047, p. 537. 2. See A. Besnard, La Tour: la vie et L'oeuvre de l'artiste, Paris 1928, p. 157, no. 343, plate LXI, fig. 109.