Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour

Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour (1750), in the Harvard Art Museums, is an earlier portrait of Louis XV's mistress, painted when her position at court was at its most secure. Boucher renders the marquise with characteristic elegance, her beauty and refinement presented as natural gifts enhanced by impeccable taste. Pompadour's patronage of Boucher was mutually beneficial — she gained the most fashionable painter in France as her image-maker, while he received the most powerful patronage available. Harvard's acquisition of this portrait brought a significant example of French Rococo portraiture to an American university collection.

Boucher presents Pompadour with the decorative richness and sensual charm of the mature Rococo style, surrounded by flowers and luxurious fabrics. The warm palette and fluid brushwork demonstrate the style that would define French court painting of the 1750s.