Description

Maurice Quentin de La Tour specialized in portraiture, and was praised by his contemporaries for creating uncanny likenesses of his sitters. He often created these works using pastel, a rich and powdery drawing material. He took up the technique for this quickly drawn sketch, created directly in front of his friend, the painter Jacques Dumont. La Tour used the drawing as a guide for Dumont's face in two different large-scale portraits in pastel, one of which is in the Louvre in Paris. During the 1800s this sheet was owned by Edmond and Jules de Goncourt, the brothers who, as writers and intellectuals, championed the art of 18th-century France and helped to revive interest in La Tour and other artists from that period.

Provenance

Camille Marcille [1815-1875], Gasville-Oisème (?-1875); (Hotel Drouot, Paris, Tableaux et dessins formant la collection de feu M. Camille Marcille, March 6-7, 1876, no. 152) (1876); "Groult" (1876-?); Edmond and Jules de Goncourt [1822-1896 and 1830-1870; Lugt 1089], Draveil and Neuilly-Auteuil-Passy (?-1897); (Hotel Drouot, Paris, Goncourt sale, February 15-17, 1897, no. 157) (1897); Marius Paulme [1863-1928; Lugt 1910], Paris (1897-?); Guillaume de Gontaut-Biron, marquis de Biron [1859-1939], Dordogne (?-1914); (Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, Collection du Marquis de Biron, première vente..., June 9-11, 1914, no. 38) (1914); Gaston Le Breton [1845-1920], Rouen (1914-1920); (Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, Le Breton sale, December 6-8, 1921, no. 91, sold to Ducrey) (1921); Ducrey collection (1921-by 1935); Private collection ("Mme X") (by 1935-by 1982); (Sotheby's, London, Old Master Drawings, November 18,1982, no. 50) (1982); (Société Artemis, Paris) (1982-1983); (David Carritt, Ltd., London, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH) (1983); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1983-)