Portrait of the Marquis de Marigny and his Wife, Marie-Francoise Constance Julie Filleul

Louis-Michel van Loo's double portrait of the Marquis de Marigny and his wife Marie-Françoise Constance Julie Filleul, painted in 1769, depicts one of the most powerful figures in the French art world of the ancien régime. Abel-François Poisson, Marquis de Marigny, was the brother of Madame de Pompadour and director-general of the king's buildings from 1751 to 1773, effectively France's superintendent of the arts. His taste and patronage shaped the transition from Rococo to Neoclassicism in French decorative arts. Van Loo's portrait captures the couple near the end of Marigny's tenure, with the informality of a garden setting softening the formal implications of his extraordinary position.

Van Loo arranges the couple in an outdoor garden setting with the relaxed intimacy fashionable in double portraits of the period. His command of silk and embroidery textures and the subtleties of outdoor light give the painting a quality of elegant naturalism within the conventions of court portraiture.