LA TOUR, la'toor, Maurice Quentin de, French artist: b. Saint Quentin, 5 Sept. 1704; d. there, 18 Feb. 1788. His art was practically self-developed although his early teacher, Speede, influenced him in taking up pastel work, which was not at the time in favor, although it became fashionable later and was the medium through which La Tour won his fame as a portraitist. He was at Cambrai when the con gress was in session in 1724 and later visited England, supposedly upon the invitation of the English ambassador. In 1737 La Tour first exhibited in the Salon, and in the succeeding 37 years exhibited there some 150 portraits of exceptional beauty and excellence. He was elected to the Academy in 1751 and became coun cillor in the following year upon his appoint ment as painter to the king. His art was two fold in that he possessed the faculty of paint ing his sitters at their best, often with sur roundings of exceptional beauty, and at the same time produced an indisputable likeness so that he both pleased his patrons and disarmed the criticism of his fellow artists. His sitters included the royal family and the fashionable followers of the court, and as he painted until the age of 80 he amassed a large fortune with which he was very liberal. He founded three
perpetual prizes for the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and endowed a school of design and other useful institutions at Saint Quentin. Probably the finest specimen of his art is the portrait of Madame de Pompadour, executed in life size and exhibited in the Salon in 1755, and now the most highly prized of the Louvre's collection of pastels. His portraits of Louis XV, his queen, the Dauphin and Dauphiness, Voltaire and Rousseau are regarded as being almost as valuable for their historical exacti tude as for their high art value. The splendid collection of his work owned by the museum at Saint Quentin consists of works which were in his own possession at the time of his death and were bequeathed to the museum by La Tour's brother. Many of these are sketches for his finished portraits and afford a rich field for study. Consult Desmeze, C.,