Portrait of the artist's family

Painted in 1704 and now at the Kunsthalle Bremen, this group portrait of the artist's own family represents one of the most personally significant works in Largillière's surviving output: unlike the many commissioned portraits that document his clients, this painting shows Largillière himself, his wife, and their children in an arrangement that combined professional demonstration with private record. Family portraits by artists of their own families had a long tradition—Van Dyck had painted himself with his family, as had Rembrandt in less formal contexts—and Largillière used the opportunity both to test his compositional abilities and to create a lasting image of his household. The Kunsthalle Bremen holds this work as a major example of French seventeenth and eighteenth-century portraiture, and its family-portrait format distinguishes it from the overwhelming majority of his surviving commissioned work.

Arranging his own family, Largillière could work without the commercial pressure of pleasing a paying client, potentially allowing him greater latitude in pose and expression. His own image within the group would have been painted from a mirror or secondary study, while his wife and children could have been painted from life in extended sessions. The composition shows careful planning of tonal balance across multiple figures.