Maurice Quentin de La Tour
Maurice Quentin de La Tour , also Delatour , (born September 5, 1704 in Saint-Quentin , † February 17, 1788 ibid) was a pastel portrait painter of the French Rococo .
Famous are u. a. his portraits of King Louis XV. , Madame de Pompadour , Isabelle de Charrière , Voltaire , Jean-Jacques Rousseau and D'Alembert .
Life
Thanks to the stay of the Italian painter Rosalba Carriera in Paris in 1720/1721, pastel painting regained great popularity. De La Tour first studied from 1719 for three years at a small Paris academy before he went into business for himself. He got to know the painters Louis Boullogne and Jean Restout , with Restout in particular exerting a great influence on him. In 1735, a portrait of Voltaire earned him general recognition. As a result, he painted various portraits of Louis XV. and his family and became one of the most popular court painters alongside Jean-Marc Nattier . Soon he was known as the Prince des pastellistes , "Prince of the Pastel Painter". In 1750 he was appointed advisor at the Royal Academy of Art . From 1750 to 1773 he was also court painter to the French king. Joseph Vivien is considered the most important forerunner of La Tours .
His students included Joseph Boze (1745–1826), Jacques Neilson (1714–1788), the Scot Katherine Rad (1723–1779) and, above all, Adélaïde Labille-Guiard (1749–1803).
Works
His paintings are located in the Louvre (Madame Pompadour) and in the Musée Antoine Lécuyer in Saint-Quentin, which has the most important collection of his pastels.
Later honors
- The French National Bank issued 50 franc banknotes with his portrait from 1976 to 1992.
literature
- Xavier Salmon: Maurice Quentin de La Tour. Le voleur d'âmes . Éditions Artlys, Versailles 2004, ISBN 2-85495-226-X .
- Xavier Salmon, Christine Debrie: Maurice Quentin de La Tour. Prince of the pastellist . Somogy, Paris 2000, ISBN 2-85056-431-1 .
- Christine Debrie: Maurice Quentin de La Tour. Paintings of portraits in pastel. 1704-1788 . Ed .: Musée Antoine Lécuyer de Saint-Quentin. Édition de l'Albaron, Thonon-les-Bains 1991, ISBN 2-908528-13-4 .
Web links
- Maurice Quentin de La Tour Online Maurice Quentin de La Tour at the Musée Antoine Lécuyer (flash)
- Works by Maurice Quentin de La Tour at Zeno.org .
- de la Tour at artcyclopedia (engl.)
personal data | |
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SURNAME | La Tour, Maurice Quentin de |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Delatour, Maurice Quentin |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French Rococo portrait painter |
DATE OF BIRTH | September 5, 1704 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Saint-Quentin |
DATE OF DEATH | February 17, 1788 |
Place of death | Saint-Quentin |