Portrait of a Lady

Dated 1750 and housed in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, this Portrait of a Lady was painted shortly after van Loo's return from Spain to Paris, when he was reestablishing himself within the French capital's portrait market. The anonymity of the sitter places the work within a large category of Rococo female portraiture in which the social conventions of elegant femininity — refined dress, composed expression, cultivated bearing — were more important than individual biographical detail. Such works served as demonstrations of a painter's skill as much as records of specific individuals, and van Loo's ability to present an unknown lady with the same visual authority accorded to royalty speaks to his mastery of the genre. The National Gallery's acquisition of this work reflects nineteenth- and twentieth-century taste for precisely this kind of sophisticated Rococo portraiture, valued for its technical refinement and its evocation of a lost world of ancien régime elegance.

Van Loo brings his full mature technique to bear: seamless flesh modelling, varied handling of fabric from smooth silk to textured lace, and a carefully calibrated background that is neither purely neutral nor specifically narrative. The colour harmony is refined — pale blues, creams, and soft pinks — characteristic of his best female portraiture from the 1740s and 1750s.