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Article: Rigaud, Tocqué and the French Rococo Portrait

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Rigaud, Tocqué and the French Rococo Portrait

Tocqué painted the Queen of France in 1740. Versailles owns a full-length copy of it, by a hand nobody recorded.

The original is in the Louvre. The copy, after Tocqué, hangs in the château.

A lady in blue-green flowered silk and pearls, looking straight out of the canvas The face first Flowered silk worked leaf by leaf, and a face left plain, looking straight at you. Lady in Blue-Green Silk, follower of Tocqué, 1700s
A lady in a lace cap tied with broad pink ribbons, against a plain ground The plain likeness A lace cap and pink ribbons against a plain ground. No goddess, no allegory. Lady in a Lace Cap, French School, 1700s

The French Rococo portrait idealized the silk and the powder, but not the face. A sitter nobody recognized had paid for nothing.

How to Tell Rigaud's Manner From Tocqué's

Same century, same clients, two different things asked of the painter.

Rigaud1659-1743 · Rank firstVelvet, a long powdered wig, a dark groundThe light picking the face out of the fabricFrom Perpignan to the court of Louis XIV, in coronation robes, 1701A large workshop, compositions repeated by design Tocqué1696-1772 · The face firstA warm neutral ground, a quiet poseNo mythological costume, the dress after the sitterTrained under Nicolas Bertin, later Nattier's son-in-lawThe queen, 1740, in her robes of state, not as a goddess

How to Date a French Portrait by the Wig

A portrait can lose its name and its signature. It cannot lose its hair.

About 1700The full-bottomed wigCurls falling over both shoulders.
About 1745The bag wigRolls at the temples, a black silk bag behind.
About 1775The queueClose to the head, tied at the nape with a ribbon.

Schematic. Each style overlapped the next by a decade at either end. The round details show a fashion on a portrait in this collection, not the date of its canvas.

What After Rigaud and Follower of Tocqué Mean

Autograph works by either man reach the market only rarely. What comes up is the world they made.

After Rigaud
A compositionA period version of a known Rigaud design, made when royal images were copied on purpose.
Follower of Tocqué
A mannerA painter working in his way, in his lifetime or somewhat later, for clients who wanted the plainer likeness.

Neither term means a later copy. Both describe period oil paintings by trained hands.

Works citedHyacinthe Rigaud, Louis XIV in Coronation Robes, 1701. Musée du Louvre, Paris
Louis Tocqué, Marie Leszczynska, Queen of France, 1740. Musée du Louvre, Paris
After Louis Tocqué, Marie Leszczynska, Queen of France, 18th century. Château de Versailles

French 18th-century portraits for sale

A man in a red coat and lace cravat under a long powdered wig, French school, in a carved gilt frame Gentleman in a Red Coat, 1700s $4,800See the painting Antique 18th century French portrait of a gentleman with a lace jabot and a pink carnation, oil on canvas in a gilt frame Gentleman with a Carnation $5,800See the painting Portrait of a lady in blue-green silk with a pearl necklace, follower of Louis Tocque, 18th century oil on canvas in a gilt frame Lady in Blue-Green Silk, 1700s $5,700See the painting Antique portrait of a lady with a pink ribbon hat, 18th century French oil on canvas, gilt frame Lady in a Lace Cap $4,400See the painting
For sale
18th-Century French Portraits 18th-Century French Portraits6 paintingsBrowse the collection
Keep reading More in The Portrait TraditionCollecting 18th-Century French Portraits Related guideReading Attribution on an Antique Painting Related guideRoyal Portraits, Made to Be Copied Every guide, by subject

Original works, shipped free to the US and Canada, packed and tracked|Over 1,100 paintings sold since 2017

Photographs and descriptions of the paintings in our collection by GalerieClub Fine Art.