Portrait of a Man

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Portrait of a Man

Artist Nicolas de Largillière (French, 1656-1746)

Place of OriginFrance

Date1703

DimensionsH: 57 3/4 in. (146.7 cm); W: 45 1/4 in. (114.4 cm)

MediumOil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1955.35

Not on View

Label TextAlthough the identities of the man and woman in this portrait are unknown, the painting was probably meant to commemorate their liaison, possibly even their marriage. The cherub (is he also a portrait of a specific child?) holding an apple is an allusion to the theme of love, perhaps suggesting the judgment of Paris, the Trojan prince who awarded a golden apple to Venus as the fairest of three goddesses. Nicolas de Largillière’s portraits focused on the middle-class professionals and civic leaders who were becoming art patrons in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. He combined naturalism learned from training in Flanders and England with the tradition of ideal beauty valued in allegorical French court portraiture. This canvas represents a change in his style after 1700, when his portraits began to have a greater intimacy and express a new Rococo sensibility. Figures are closer to the picture plane, and warm colors, like the orange, scarlet, and reds here, accent the sitter and surrounding details.Published ReferencesToledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, p. 91, pl 192.

"The Age of Versailles," Art News, vol. 54, Nov. 1955, repr. p. 31.

Charmet, Raymond, "L'Art Francais au Musée de Toledo," Arts, no 556, Feb. 22, 1956, p. 14.

Grigaut, Paul L., "Baroque and Rococo France in Toledo," Art Quarterly, vol. 19, no. 1, Spring 1956, p. 53, repr. p. 51, fig. 2.

"French Art (1600-1800)," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 3, no. 4, Autumn 1960, p. 78, repr. p. 79.

Bruner, Louise, "The Toledo Museum of Art," American Artist, vol. 30, no.4, April 1966, repr. p. 35.

Watson, F.J.B., "Eighteenth-Century Paintings and Decorative Arts," Apollo, vol. 86, no. 70, Dec. 1967, p. 459, repr. fig. 7, p. 457.

A Guide to the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, 1966, repr.

Kroll, Marie, Letters from Liselotte, New York, 1970, repr.

Hamilton-Phillips, Martha, "Museums and Exhibitions Forum: Toledo Museum of Art," Eighteenth Century Life, vol. 16, n.s., 2, May 1992, p. 107, pl. 1.

Visages du grand siècle: le portrait français sous le règne de Louis XIV, Paris, 1997, repr. p. 130.

"Du beau fard à l'entrèe en matière," in Largilliere un géant retrouvé, Dossier De L'Art, no. 50, Sept. 1998, p. 49, fig. 39, (col.)

Duncan, Sally Anne, Otto Wittmann: Museum Man for All Seasons, Toledo, 2001, p. 6.

Prinz Heinrich von Preussen, ein Europaer in Rheinsberg, Berlin, Deutscher Kunstverlag Munchen, 2002, p. 414, repr. (col.).

Exhibition HistoryCleveland Museum of Art, Style, Truth and the Portrait, 1963, no. 12, repr.

London, Royal Academy, France in the Eighteenth Century, 1968, no.408, fig. 43.

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Largillierre and the Eighteenth-Century Portrait, 1981, no. 21, pp. 130-132, repr.

Cincinnati, OH, Taft Museum of Art, loaned for display in permanent galleries [reciprocal loan for the duration of Frans Hals Portraits: A Family Reunion], Oct. 13, 2018- January 6, 2019.