Tutor and Pupil

Largillière started his career in France with the particular variation of the idiom of the Netherlands which was current in England about 1680, and during the first twenty years after his transfer to Paris we find him adapting it to suit the taste of his country. In some portraits he applies the English convention directly, but in most cases he combines elements from it with other devices. For instance, in the portrait of a tutor and his pupil, the angular draperies of the pupil and the schematic drawing of his face belong to the English convention, whereas the head of the tutor is in a quite different vein of naturalism, suggesting rather a knowledge of Dutch painting. The pattern itself, with the two figures cut off at three-quarter-length, is a formula derived from Van Dyck and much favoured by his English followers. But the affectation of the boy's pose and the unexpected placing of the dog in the foreground, facing into the composition, distinguish the painting from English models.

This painting is an outstanding example of French portraiture from the last quarter of the seventeenth century. The artist signed and dated it very clearly to 1685 on the stone pedestal in the lower right section of the composition.

The theme of a tutor and his ward was employed by another, somewhat earlier painter. Largillière's composition has precedents, albeit generic ones, in double portraits by Anthony van Dyck, William Dobson, and Peter Lely, all of whom had significant portrait practices in England, where Largillière trained in his youth.