A Gentleman

Dated 1715 and held by the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nîmes, this portrait of an unnamed gentleman belongs to the transitional moment in French history when Louis XIV's death ended seven decades of royal dominance and opened the Regency period under Philippe d'Orléans. Largillière's portraits from around 1715 show a subtle relaxation of the formal rigidity associated with Louis XIV's court, reflecting the changed social atmosphere of the Regency years. A 'gentleman'—neither noble nor bourgeois but occupying the professional or minor-gentry classes—was a frequent subject for Largillière, whose clientele always extended beyond the titled aristocracy to include the robe nobility, wealthy merchants, and cultural figures who formed the backbone of French civic life. Nîmes's museum has significant French Old Master holdings that reflect the city's long role as a regional cultural centre.

Largillière's 1715 period shows a slight warming of his palette and a relaxation of the most rigidly formal compositional arrangements. His male portraits of this phase tend toward a slightly turned posture that allows more natural light to fall across the face, replacing the more frontally formal presentations of the late Louis XIV period.