Portrait of Monsieur Gaignat

Monsieur Gaignat, the Parisian collector whose cabinet of paintings was famous in his day, appears in this companion portrait from around 1717, also at the Harvard Art Museums. The paired Gaignat portraits document a couple at the center of Parisian art collecting, their taste shaping the market for the very kind of Rococo painting that Lancret produced. The portraits thus reflect the intimate relationship between artist and patron in eighteenth-century France.

The male portrait presents Gaignat with the informed confidence of a man whose taste was recognized across the Parisian art world. Lancret's handling balances individual characterization with the decorative elegance of his style. The companion format requires visual consistency with the Madame Gaignat portrait while conveying different aspects of masculine character.