Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00011003Jacques Dumont, called Le Romain
About the Artwork
Maurice Quentin de La Tour specialized in portraiture, and was praised by his contemporaries for creating uncanny likenesses of his sitters. He often created these works using pastel, a rich and powdery drawing material. He took up the technique for this quickly drawn sketch, created directly in front of his friend, the painter Jacques Dumont. La Tour used the drawing as a guide for Dumont's face in two different large-scale portraits in pastel, one of which is in the Louvre in Paris. During the 1800s this sheet was owned by Edmond and Jules de Goncourt, the brothers who, as writers and intellectuals, championed the art of 18th-century France and helped to revive interest in La Tour and other artists from that period.
Provenance
?-1875: Camille Marcille [1815-1875], Gasville-Oisème 1876: (Hotel Drouot, Paris, Tableaux et dessins formant la collection de feu M. Camille Marcille, March 6-7, 1876, no. 152) 1876-?: "Groult" ?-1897: Edmond and Jules de Goncourt [1822-1896 and 1830-1870; Lugt 1089], Draveil and Neuilly-Auteuil-Passy 1897: (Hotel Drouot, Paris, Goncourt sale, February 15-17, 1897, no. 157) 1897-?: Marius Paulme [1863-1928; Lugt 1910], Paris ?-1914: Guillaume de Gontaut-Biron, marquis de Biron [1859-1939], Dordogne 1914: (Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, Collection du Marquis de Biron, première vente..., June 9-11, 1914, no. 38) 1914-1920: Gaston Le Breton [1845-1920], Rouen 1921: (Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, Le Breton sale, December 6-8, 1921, no. 91, sold to Ducrey) 1921-by 1935: Ducrey collection by 1935-by 1982: Private collection ("Mme X") 1982: (Sotheby's, London, Old Master Drawings, November 18,1982, no. 50) 1982-1983: (Société Artemis, Paris) 1983: (David Carritt, Ltd., London, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH) 1983-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Exhibition history
Portraiture: The Image of the Individual. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 22, 1983-January 22, 1984). The Year in Review for 1983. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 22-April 8, 1984). Treasures on Paper. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 10-July 24, 1988). French Drawings from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 13, 1994-March 12, 1995). Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Maurice Quentin de La Tour (French, 1704–1788)
- Date
- c. 1742
- Medium
- black and white chalk with pastel
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 30.8 x 20.8 cm (12 1/8 x 8 3/16 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- John L. Severance Fund
- Accession no.
- 1983.89
More by Maurice-Quentin de La Tour in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00011003
Powered by Art Trackers