François-Marie Arouet known as Voltaire

This 1724 portrait of François-Marie Arouet, known as Voltaire, at the Palace of Versailles, is among the most historically significant of Largillière's surviving works: it captures the writer at the age of thirty, already celebrated for his literary wit and satirical works but before the publication of his major philosophical writings. Largillière was a natural choice for a young intellectual seeking portraiture of genuine quality, and the commission reflects Voltaire's early social ambitions. The Versailles context is fitting, as the palace's collection of portraits documents the full range of French intellectual and aristocratic life in the eighteenth century. Voltaire's features—sharp, pointed, with bright, mobile eyes—were distinctive enough to be recognised across multiple portraits, and this early image by Largillière established a visual identity that subsequent portraitists would refer to throughout the philosopher's long life.

The challenge of Voltaire as a sitter was to reconcile his unconventional, mercurial personality with the formal demands of Largillière's portrait conventions. The result, if it captures Voltaire's known characterisation of restless intelligence, would have required Largillière to adjust his usual formula slightly—allowing a more animated facial expression than he typically employed for noble sitters.