Marquis de Lafayette

Prud'hon's 1820 portrait of the Marquis de Lafayette, now in the National Portrait Gallery, captures the famous French-American revolutionary hero in the twilight of his long career. Lafayette had fought in the American Revolutionary War, played a leading role in the early French Revolution, and in 1820 was a celebrated figure of liberal opposition to the Bourbon monarchy's conservative course. His commissioning of Prud'hon — who had served both the Empire and was adapting to the Restoration — for a portrait suggests the cultural prestige of the aging painter in his final years. The portrait would have served as both a personal likeness and a political statement, given the intensity of Lafayette's liberal profile in Restoration France. It was presumably acquired by the National Portrait Gallery as part of the collection of images of figures connected to Anglo-American revolutionary history.

The three-quarter length portrait, Prud'hon's standard formal format for male sitters of distinction, presents Lafayette with the dignified but unstiff bearing characteristic of Prud'hon's approach to portraiture. The aging general's face receives careful attention to the marks of age without the idealizing suppression of time that flattering court portraiture demanded.