Marie Josèphe of Saxony with her son the Duke of Burgundy.

Marie Josèphe of Saxony with her son the Duke of Burgundy is among the most dynastic of La Tour's royal commissions — a double portrait that asserts the continuity of the French royal house through mother and child. The Duke of Burgundy, born in 1751, was for several years the presumptive heir to the French throne; his early death in 1761 was a severe blow to the Dauphin and Dauphine. La Tour's 1761 pastel may thus have been made in awareness of the child's fragile health, adding a poignant dimension to what appears as a conventional double dynastic portrait. The Musée Antoine-Lécuyer holds this work alongside the separate portrait of Marie Josèphe from 1749, giving the museum an unusually comprehensive record of La Tour's engagement with this royal figure.

Pastel on paper, with the technical challenge of a double portrait requiring La Tour to balance two figures in compositional harmony. Children's features required a softer, more open treatment than adult faces, and the contrast between the mother's formal court bearing and the child's natural spontaneity creates a rich psychological dynamic.