Self-Portrait

Art Historical Context

Maurice Quentin de La Tour, one of the foremost pastel portraitists of 18th-century France, created this intimate self-portrait around 1737 during the height of the Rococo period. Working in Paris amid the Enlightenment’s emphasis on individual character and expression, La Tour specialized in capturing the likenesses of intellectuals, aristocrats, and fellow artists with remarkable immediacy. His choice of pastel—a medium then gaining popularity for its luminous color and velvety texture—allowed him to achieve subtle gradations of tone and a sense of living presence that rivaled oil painting while remaining more portable and direct. Executed on greenish-tan laid paper, the small sheet (roughly 12 by 9 inches) demonstrates La Tour’s technical virtuosity in building form through layered strokes and delicate blending. The work invites viewers to consider how an artist of his stature chose to present himself: not in grandiloquent pose but with quiet concentration, reflecting both personal introspection and the era’s growing interest in psychological depth in portraiture. Today housed in the Art Institute of Chicago’s Prints and Drawings collection, this pastel exemplifies the 18th-century revival of the medium and La Tour’s pivotal role in elevating it to a respected art form. Its modest scale rewards close looking, revealing the artist’s deft handling of light and the soft, almost breathing quality he coaxed from colored chalks.