Gallery Label La Tour completed this portrait in about 1750; it is one of three different pastels by the artist of the sitter. Garnier d'Isle, "dessinateur des jardins du roi," designed the parks and gardens of Bellevue, Crécy, and La Celle Saint-Cloud for the royal mistress of Louis XV, Madame de Pompadour. The portrait is typical of La Tour, who favored smooth, blended handling of the pastel medium. This or another of the three pastels was exhibited to critical acclaim at the Paris salon of 1751.
Notes Garnier's father had been contrôleur des bâtiments for the Tuileries and the Luxembourg. His wife was the daughter of Auguste Desgots, architecte du roi, and great-niece of Le Nôtre. The sitter eventually held the titles of contrôleur des bâtiments and dessinateur des jardins royaux—designing for Madame de Pompadour the parks and gardens of Bellevue, Crécy, and La Celle Saint-Cloud.
Provenance the sitter (until d. 1755); his daughter, Mme Louis Antoine (Adélaïde Julie) Mirleau de Neuville (1755–d. 1780); by descent in the Mirleau de Neuville family (1780–1871); Albert-Louis-François Mirleau de Neuville de Marcilly (from 1871); his son, Jean-Joseph-Albert Mirleau de Neuville de Marcilly, comte de Belle-Isle, Vernon (by 1872–at least 1877, as Antoine Pierre Mirleau de Neuville); his daughter, Jeanne, comtesse de Joybert, château de Lilly, Fleury, near Lyons-la-Forêt (by 1880–d. 1938, as Jean Charles Garnier d'Isle); her daughter, Mme Pierre (Marie-Antoinette) Duffour (1938–d. 1990); her daughter or daughter-in-law (1990–2001; sold to Colnaghi); [Colnaghi, London, 2001–2002; sold to MMA]
Exhibition History Paris. Salon. 1751, no. 48 (as "Plusieurs Têtes au Pastel sous le même No.," possibly including this work).
References "Exposition des ouvrages de l'Académie royale de peinture faite dans une des sales du Louvre le 25 novembre 1751." Mercure de France (October 1751), p. 158 [see Refs. Fleury and Brière 1920, p. 37, and Debrie and Salmon 2000, pp. 162, 169 n. 45], mentions a pastel portrait of "M. Dille" in the 1751 Salon, possibly this picture.Dictionnaire critique de biographie et d'histoire: errata et supplément pour tous les dictionnaires historiques d'après des documents authentiques inédits . 2nd ed. Paris, 1872, pp. 1318–19, identifies the pastel, which descended in the family of the vicomte de Belle-Isle, Vernon, as a portrait of the owner's great-grandfather, Antoine-Pierre Mirleau de Neuville, fermier général and secrétaire du roi; describes it as "un morceau que tout amateur voudrait avoir dans son cabinet".Catalogue des pastels de M.-Q. de La Tour: Collection de Saint-Quentin et Musée du Louvre . Paris, 1920, p. 37, mention this pastel as one of three (the others at Saint-Quentin and in the David Weill collection) representing Jean Charles Garnier d'Isle, noting that it is the same size as the David Weill work but shows a different costume, and that it belongs to descendants of the sitter; fail to identify it with a portrait incorrectly called "M. de Neuville," which had been brought to their attention by the comte de Joybert.La Tour: La vie et l'oeuvre de l'artiste . Paris, 1928, p. 143, no. 158, identify the sitter for the portrait published by Jal [see Ref. 1872] as Monsieur Garnier d'Isle rather than Monsieur Mirleau de Neuville, and list the owner as the comte de Joybert.Collection Maurice-Quentin Delatour à Saint-Quentin: Catalogue . Saint-Quentin, 1954, p. 53, under no. 22, note that the two larger pastels belong respectively to the Fogg Museum and the comte de Joybert.Maurice-Quentin de La Tour: Prince des pastellistes . Paris, 2000, pp. 161–63, 169 n. 51, colorpls. 83–84 (overall and detail), mention that this pastel was doubtless commissioned by the sitter or his daughter and that it may have been exhibited at the Salon of 1751.in "Recent Acquisitions, A Selection: 2002–2003." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 61 (Fall 2003), p. 24, ill. (color), dates it about 1750.in "2002: The Year in Review at Colnaghi." Old Master Paintings and Drawings . London, 2003, p. 14, fig. 8 (color), state that the "rocaille" frame is original.Metropolitan Museum Journal 40 (2005), pp. 105–19, figs. 1, 3, 6, 9 (overall, details, and infrared reflectogram), colorpl. 8, mentions the exceptional use of an unplaned surface, retaining the tree bark, for the vertical bars of the strainer, and suggests that "these rounded surfaces were meant to prevent damaging pressure marks being transferred to the pastel surface"; discusses in detail the laying out and preparation of the paper surface; notes that the clasps of the the sitter's jacket have been made tactile "by painting them with a brush loaded with a thick liquid mixture of gray, white, and black gouache, producing an effect that virtually sparkles".in Philippe de Montebello and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1977–2008 . New York, 2009, p. xiii, fig. 2 (color).
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