Nicolas de Largillière représenté en 1711, travaillant à une Annonciation

Painted in 1711, this self-portrait showing Largillière at work on an Annunciation scene provides a rare documentary window into both his appearance at age fifty-eight and his studio practice. The device of depicting an artist at work on a specifically identified picture—here a religious Annunciation—combined self-portraiture with professional statement and religious devotion, a formulation with deep roots in European art. Largillière was a committed Catholic, and depicting himself in the act of creating sacred imagery was a meaningful statement about the intersection of his faith and his profession. The Palace of Versailles holds this work in the context of the royal portrait collection, reflecting Largillière's status as a figure worthy of inclusion in the national historical record. At fifty-eight, he appears at full professional maturity, still decades from the end of his long career.

The compositional challenge of a painter-at-work self-portrait required Largillière to incorporate the tools and canvas of his profession into the standard self-portrait format, while depicting his own face in the act of looking toward the mirror—a specific and slightly inward-turning gaze distinct from the direct viewer-engagement of his commissioned portraits. The partially visible Annunciation on the canvas within the painting added a secondary pictorial layer.