Portrait de Charles Le Brun

This undated portrait of Charles Le Brun, held by the Mobilier National, is among the most historically significant attributions in Largillière's portrait output: Le Brun was the most powerful figure in French art of the second half of the seventeenth century—First Painter to Louis XIV, director of the Gobelins manufactory, and the architectural force behind the decorative programme of Versailles. A portrait by Largillière of Le Brun would represent a younger artist's homage to, or professional connection with, the greatest authority in French art. However, Le Brun died in 1690, and Largillière did not establish himself in Paris until around 1682-1686, making direct contact plausible only for a brief window. The portrait could be a posthumous image based on an earlier prototype, or a work from the very beginning of Largillière's Paris career. The Mobilier National—France's national furniture and decorative arts administration—holds portraits with strong connections to French royal and state institutions.

If painted from life in the late 1680s, this portrait would show Largillière's earliest known Paris manner—still strongly Flemish in its tonal range, with the heavy impasto and rich dark grounds of his Antwerp formation. A posthumous portrait based on an earlier image would show different handling, potentially adapted from an existing prototype rather than observed from life.