La Femme infidèle. Les Rémois.

An unfaithful woman appears in this scene illustrating one of Jean de La Fontaine's Contes et nouvelles en vers, painted around 1750 at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tours. Literary illustration provided Lancret with ready-made narratives whose Rabelaisian humor and erotic comedy could be translated into visual form with the sanction of a canonical French literary source. La Fontaine's Contes, with their tales of cuckoldry, feminine cunning, and comic desire, gave Rococo painters a framework for depicting the amorous subjects that aristocratic and bourgeois collectors found entertaining. Lancret painted numerous La Fontaine subjects, developing a sub-genre of illustrated literary comedy that was widely disseminated through prints and engravings.

The narrative scene requires clear visual storytelling that Lancret achieves through expressive gesture and facial expression. The interior setting and costume details place the scene in a recognizable social milieu. Lancret's decorative handling maintains the light, entertaining quality appropriate to La Fontaine's comic tales.