Portrait of Mme Pompadour

Portrait of Madame de Pompadour at the Munich Central Collecting Point (1758) is one of the largest Boucher portraits of his most famous sitter (214.5 × 162.5 cm), suggesting a major formal commission intended for a significant state room rather than private apartments. The painting's current listing at the Munich Central Collecting Point indicates it was displaced during the Second World War and processed through the Allied art recovery operation that handled looted and displaced works across occupied Europe. Pompadour portraits by Boucher were among the most sought-after works in French royal and aristocratic collections, and several were looted during the German occupation of France. This formal standing portrait would have been an assertion of Pompadour's quasi-regal status — dressed and posed in the manner of royal portraiture, but without the crown she could never claim. The painting's wartime displacement and recovery represent yet another episode in the troubled history of European cultural patrimony.

The portrait is rendered with pastel palette that characterizes François Boucher's best work. Oil on canvas provides a rich ground for the subtle gradations of flesh tone and the textural contrasts between skin, fabric, and background that give the image its convincing presence.