Portrait of Philippe Néricault Destouches

This 1741 portrait of Philippe Néricault Destouches—the French dramatist who had considerable success with comedies of manners in the tradition of Molière—now at the Musée Municipal de Bourg-en-Bresse, captures one of the Académie française's elected members in the conventional pose of a man of letters. Destouches was in his late fifties when this portrait was made, and Largillière was in his late eighties—making this among the very last portraits the master produced before his death in 1746. A playwright and Academician provided a different visual challenge from aristocratic sitters: the emphasis was on intellectual accomplishment and social respectability rather than dynastic prestige. Bourg-en-Bresse's municipal collection reflects the regional collecting interests of a provincial French city with strong historical and cultural connections to the surrounding Ain countryside.

Late Largillière portraits show maintained compositional authority alongside a softening of the sharp textural contrasts of his prime. The face of an elderly sitter—Destouches in his late fifties—would have required Largillière to balance flattery with truth; his late portraits tend toward a gentle softening of features while retaining individual recognition.