Lot 141: Maurice Quentin De La Tour (Saint Quentin 1704-1788)

Maurice Quentin De La Tour (Saint Quentin 1704-1788)
Portrait of Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon, bust-length in antique dress
pastel on blue (faded) paper laid down on canvas
18 1/8 x 14¾ in. (45.9 x 37.6 cm.)

X. Salmon, Le voleur d'âmes: Maurice Quentin de La Tour, exh. cat. Versailles, Musée national des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon, 2004, p. 92, under no. 12, fig. 1.
N. Jeffares, Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, London, 2006, p. 292.

Anonymous sale; Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 27 April 2001, lot 88.

THIS LOT IS SOLD WITHOUT RESERVE

Crébillon (1674-1762) was a poet and playwright, a contemporary of Voltaire. Despite his success which included membership to the Académie Française and an appointment by Madame de Pompadour to the royal library, Crébillon lived in near-poverty and isolation. There are several versions of this portrait. The primary version was exhibited at the Salon in 1761. It was one of the earliest 18th-century portraits done à l'antique, a fitting depiction of a writer who was called the 'Eschyle français'.