Lot 63: Maurice-Quentin de La Tour (Saint-Quentin 1704-1788)

Portrait of Charles-Louis-Auguste Fouquet (1684-1761), Maréchal de France and Duc de Belle-Isle, half-length
pastel on paper
23 1/4 x 19 3/4 in. (59 x 50 cm.)

Paris, Salon de l'Académie Royale, 1748, no. 81.
Paris, Exposition de cent pastels (catalogue by R. Milès), May-June 1908, no. 40.
Paris, Exposition de pastels français des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles (catalogue by E. Dacier and P. Ratouis de Limay), May-June 1927, no. 49.

E. Dréolle de Nodon, Éloge biographique de Maurice-Quentin de La Tour, Paris, 1856, pp. 139-40.
E. Bellier de La Chavignerie and L. Auvray, Dictionnaire général des Artistes de l'École Française, Paris, 1882, I, p. 919.
E. and J. de Goncourt, L'Art du XVIIIe siècle, Paris, 1883, I, pp. 227-8.
E. Dilke, French Painters of the XVIIIth Century, London, 1899, p. 164.
H. Lapauze, Les pastels de Maurice-Quentin de La Tour à Saint-Quentin, Paris, 1899, p. 103.
M. Tourneux, 'Collection Jacques Doucet', Les Arts, 1904, p. 14, no. 36.
M. Tourneux, La Tour, Paris, 1904, p. 46.
A. Besnard and G. Wildenstein, La Tour - La vie et l'oeuvre de l'artiste, Paris, 1928, no. 20, fig. 28.
P. Ratouis de Limay, Le pastel en France au dix-huitième siècle, Paris, 1946, p. 211.
A. de Maurepas, 'A cinquante lieues de Paris: Le journal inédit des frères Belle-Isle pendant leur exil à Nevers et en Bourbonnais', in Etudes Bourbonnaises, 13 séries, no. 267, 1 quarter 1994, illustrated on the cover.
C. Debrie and X. Salmon, Maurice-Quentin de La Tour: prince des pastellistes, Paris, 2000, pp. 130-1, fig. 58.

Thionville.
Jacques Doucet; sale, Paris, 5 June 1912, lot 76 (FF46,000 to Jules Strauss for M. Hirsch).
Louis Hirsch, Paris, and by descent until sold
Sotheby's, Monaco, 18 June 1992, lot 60, where purchased by the present owner.

PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF PHOEBE COWLES

This pastel, one of the most brilliant drawn by La Tour, was exhibited by the artist at the 1748 Salon. By then, he was France's foremost portraitist, contributing fifteen pastel portraits to the Salon of that year. These not only included portraits of King Louis XV, his wife and the Dauphin, but also of France's three leading Maréchals: Belle-Isle, Saxe and Lowendal (Louis XV's and Marie Leczinska's portraits are in the Louvre, the Dauphin's and Saxe's are probably also those in the Louvre and Lowendal's is in a private collection, see C. Debrie and X. Salmon, op. cit., figs. 35-6, 37, 54 and A. Besnard, op. cit., no. 296, fig. 43).

With this group of portraits the most powerful figures in France all sat for La Tour at a key moment in political events. In August 1748, France was in the midst of the preparing the peace treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, that was signed on October 18th. The treaty would end the wars of succession in Austria that had been achieved through the victories of the three great generals and Louis XV, all of whom were depicted by La Tour.

Charles-Louis-Auguste Fouquet, Count and then Duke of Belle-Isle was one of Louis XV's most important generals. He began his career under bad auspices, being the grandson of Louis XIV's disgraced Minister of Finance, Nicolas Fouquet, who died in prison. Nonetheless he was appointed Colonel of the dragoon by the old King Louis XIV and was active throughout the Regency. He became governor of Metz in 1733. On 11 February 1741, Belle-Isle was elevated to the highest military rank, that of Maréchal, and was sent as ambassador to the Diet of Frankfurt for the election of a new Emperor. His negotiations lead to a war between France and Austria that would only end with the peace treaty of 1748. That year the Count de Belle-Isle was elevated to the rank of Duke. In 1749 he was elected to the Académie Française. Thereafter he resumed his military career having, amongst other duties, that of defending the French coast against the English. He was made ministre d'État on 16 May 1756 and on 3 March 1758 he reluctantly accepted the post of Minister of War, (considering the rank of Minister below him, he only agreed to take the position on the condition that he would have an under-minister to do the work). He died in office on 26 January 1761.

La Tour chose to depict Belle-Isle in a conventional half-length pose, adorned with his various military decorations, and turned three-quarters towards the viewer. The skill of this portrait lies in La Tour's mastery at combining the authority and rank of the sitter with an immediacy in his direct glance which makes Belle-Isle not only present, but also very much alive. Indeed he looks out at the viewer with knowing eyes and an imperceptible, very faint smile - the expression of somebody conscious of his many achievements. In fact the fundamental quality of La Tour's art lies in his ability to suggest the temperament and psychology of his subjects by means of their facial expression, and thereby to translate their inner thoughts on to paper: 'I penetrate into the depths of my subjects without their knowing it, and capture them whole' as he himself put it (see J. Turner ed., The Dictionary of Art, New York, 1996, p.841).

The style of this pastel is typical of La Tour, his broad and dynamic strokes applied in a free way take the use of pastels to the limits of their technical potential. He excels in rendering the opulence of Belle-Isle's velvet overdress, the intricateness of it's golden embroideries, the shimmering quality of his satin sash and silk necktie, and the elaborate metalwork of his decoration. (La Tour also drew a portrait (fig.1) of Belle-Isle's second wife (C. Debrie and X. Salmon, op. cit., fig. 59). Her portrait was executed a few months before that of her husband.

Please note the medium is pastel on paper laid down on linen.