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(b St-Quentin, 5 Sept. 1704; d St-Quentin, 17 Feb. 1788). With Perronneau the most celebrated and the most successful French pastel portraitist of the 18th century. His portraits are remarkable for their beauty of colour, their mastery of texture, and above all their brilliant handling of expression, which gives them a feeling of great vivacity. La Tour himself said, ‘I penetrate into the depths of my subjects without their knowing it, and capture them whole.’ He portrayed many of the most famous men and women of his day and in 1750 he became portraitist to Louis XV. He made a fortune from his work and late in life he used much of it for philanthropic purposes, in both Paris and his native St-Quentin. The museum there has a good collection of his work.

Text source: The Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford University Press)


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