Portrait of Madame de Pompadour

Boucher's Portrait of Madame de Pompadour from 1758 is one of the last and most sympathetic of his multiple portraits of Louis XV's celebrated mistress, painted when she was in her late thirties and approaching the end of her life. Pompadour had been the most important patron of the French arts in the mid-eighteenth century — she supported Boucher, directed the Sèvres porcelain factory, and influenced the cultural policy of the royal court for two decades — and Boucher returned repeatedly to her portrait throughout their long professional relationship. This late version, more intimate than his monumental earlier portraits, shows her surrounded by the books and drawings that signal her intellectual pretensions alongside the fine dress and jewels that mark her social station. She died in 1764 aged forty-three, exhausted by years of political maneuvering.

The oil on canvas shows Boucher at the height of his powers, with his signature palette of pinks, blues, and creams. The lavish rendering of silk, lace, ribbons, and flowers surrounding the marquise demonstrates his unparalleled skill in creating images of aristocratic luxury and feminine elegance.