Maurice-Quentin de La Tour (French, 1704–1788), Portrait of Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville, 1746/47. Pastel on blue-gray laid paper, laid down on board, 61.2 × 49.4 cm. Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester Collection, 2001.52 © Art Institute of Chicago

This virtuoso violinist and composer (1711-1772) was second in command at the royal chapel and director of the Orchestra of the Spiritual Concert, both important musical institutions in eighteenth century Paris, and was as renowned for his theater pieces as he was for his motets. La Tour was a close friend, and a newly elected member of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, when he captured this informal but sympathetic pose of de Mondonville tuning his violin. It was shown in the Salon of 1747.

Maurice-Quentin de La Tour (French, 1704–1788), Portrait of Madame Anne-Jeanne Cassanéa de Mondonville, née Boucon (1708-1780), c. 1752 Pastel on blue-gray laid paper, laid down on canvas and wrapped around a strainer, enlarged by the artist with a band of paper about 3 cm high, 66 x 55 cm. Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester Collection, 2001.53 © Art Institute of Chicago

In 1747, the noted violinist and composer Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville married Anne-Jeanne Boucon (1708-1780), the daughter of a great art collector and herself a noted musician. She asked La Tour to make her likeness but claimed she could only pay half his usual rate. It is said that La Tour drew this complex, powerful portrait in just one sitting. When Mme de Mondonville sent him the amount she had promised, their friendship was ruptured.