Maurice Quentin De La Tour : L'oeil Absolu

Considered by his contemporaries to be one of the greatest portraitists, the pastelist Maurice-Quentin de la Tour (1704-1788) used pastel powders to transcribe the softness of velvet, the delicacy of lace and the shimmer of armour. A fine psychologist who was able to capture the soul of his models, La Tour also dabbled in music, theatre, dance and astronomy. Constantly striving for perfection, he was a friend of philosophers, scientists and artists, and delivered their faces to posterity.

La Tour's life and work have not been the subject of a comprehensive monograph in France since Albert Besnard and Georges Wildenstein published their first in 1928. Having worked on the master and his creations for almost 30 years, Xavier Salmon now offers a new tribute to the most famous pastelist of the 18th century, delivering a precise study in which masterpieces and previously unpublished or little-known pastels are carefully analysed, placed in the context of their time and reproduced in order to restore all the richness and diversity of a Century of Enlightenment of which Maurice Quentin de La Tour was undoubtedly one of the most faithful witnesses.