Antoine-Gaspard Grimod de La Reynière (1690–1756), ferme générale

Antoine-Gaspard Grimod de La Reynière was a fermier général — one of the private tax collectors who formed the financial backbone of the French ancien régime and who were notorious for their wealth and social ambitions. La Tour's 1751 pastel, in the Musée Antoine-Lécuyer, documents the artist's access to the fermier général class, whose lavish patronage of arts and letters made them central figures in French cultural life even as their role in tax collection made them socially ambiguous. Grimrod de La Reynière's son, Alexandre Balthazar Laurent, would become the first great French gastronomic writer. The 1751 date places the portrait in La Tour's peak period, and the sitter's combination of wealth and cultural ambition made him a characteristic La Tour patron.

Pastel on paper, with La Tour's mature layering technique fully deployed. The wealthy tax official's costume — likely silk coat and fine linen — provides a rich material surface for La Tour to render through his characteristic varied stroke work. The face carries the psychological weight that distinguishes La Tour's work from more superficial Rococo portraiture.