Sketches from life

Three surviving sketches of the Marquise’s face attest to the long preparatory stage necessary for the portrait; only the head was drawn from life.

The three sketches are held in the Musée Antoine Lécuyer in Saint-Quentin. Experts have raised doubts over one of the three, calling the sitter’s identity into question.

The two other two sketches are clearly of the Marquise, and the size of the faces is a close match for the finished drawing (15.2 cm high and 13.3 cm at the widest part of the face, or 6 inches by 5.2).

  1. Marquise de Pompadour, 
    Maurice Quentin de La Tour
    Saint-Quentin, Musée Antoine Lécuyer, L.T. 71
    © RMN-Grand Palais / Mathieu Rabeau

  2. Marquise de Pompadour, 
    Maurice Quentin de La Tour
    Saint-Quentin, Musée Antoine Lécuyer, L.T. 12
    © RMN-Grand Palais / Mathieu Rabeau

  3. Marquise de Pompadour, 
    Maurice Quentin de La Tour
    Saint-Quentin, Musée Antoine Lécuyer, L.T. 109
    © RMN-Grand Palais / Mathieu Rabeau

  4. Portrait de la marquise de Pompadour, 
    Maurice Quentin de La Tour
    Paris, Musée du Louvre, Inv 27614
    © Lessing photo

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