This Portrait of Jacques Cazotteby Jean Baptiste Perronneau is in the traditional French style of portraiture, however, is intriguingly informal with the sitter smiling and looking off to his right. It was painted sometime in the 1760s.
The sitter is a French writer of poems and novels Jacques Cazotte, who some 30 years after being painted was arrested during the French Revolution for his anti-revolutionary writings. He escaped from prison after help from his daughter, however, was eventually captured and executed by way of guillotine in 1792.
Perronneau traditionally painted in pastels and this is a rare example of an oil painting. Interestingly the painting is still painted using pastelist techniques.
Jean Baptiste Perronneau’s Portrait of jacques cazotte is in the National Gallery in London, United Kingdom.