The illustrated monograph

The most complete volume on this site: an essay of 10,000 words on Maurice Quentin de La Tour — the boy from Saint-Quentin, the physics of pastel and the préparations, the Salons, the smile, the retirement — followed by the catalogue of the 68 works with an image recorded by Wikidata, each illustrated and given a commentary. Its pages, listed below, read like any other page of the site — click any image to enlarge it, arrow keys ← → to navigate.

Key facts

The essay: ≈ 10,000 words in 6 pages: the career, the technique of pastel, the gallery and the market, the smile, the retirement, the afterlife
The catalogue: 68 works in 2 chronological pages, all illustrated and all with commentary (≈ 5,000 words)
Language: English — the rest of the site is bilingual
Sources: Wikidata (works, dates, collections); images from Wikimedia Commons (internet connection required); the full œuvre is far larger (the Saint-Quentin fonds, Neil Jeffares's Dictionary of Pastellists)

The essay, in six pages

The split follows the essay's chapters — no section is cut
Page	Chapters
Essay · Saint-Quentin and Paris	Prologue: the age that smiled — I. Saint-Quentin, Paris, and the crooked apprenticeship — I bis. Portrait of a market
Essay · The technique of pastel	II. Powder and breath — II bis. The Salon years — II ter. The man at home — II quater. The materials
Essay · The gallery and the market	VI bis. The economy of the face — III. The gallery: a century sits down — IV. The rival, the critic — V bis. Rousseau's grievance
Essay · The smile, up close	IV bis. Case studies: four faces — Practicum: how to look at a pastel — V. The smile, examined
Essay · The return to Saint-Quentin	VI. Riches, madness, and the return — VI ter. Saint-Quentin: the fonds, the war, and the rooms
Essay · Peers and posterity	VII bis. Liotard, Chardin, and pastel's European moment — Coda on the women of the medium — VII. Afterlife — Coda

The catalogue, in two pages

The 68 portraits and préparations in chronological order, each with its image, its Wikidata record and its commentary: Catalogue · 1729–1752, then Catalogue · after 1752. The site's interactive base remains available offline.