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| Jean-Marc Nattier Portrait of Marie-Françoise de La Cropte de St Abre, Marquise d'Argence 1744 oil on canvas Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Jean-Marc Nattier Portrait of Suzanne-Marguerite Fyot de la Marche, Marquise d'Argenson 1750 oil on canvas Walters Art Museum, Baltimore |
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| François-Hubert Drouais Portrait of Marie Rinteau, called Mademoiselle Verrières 1761 oil on canvas Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
"Despite shifting social mores and behavior, the aristocratic attitude continued to represent an envied model, contested only later by Enlightenment ideals. What is most striking is the development of a cult of femininity, beauty, and female privilege, which became more explicit than ever, covering a full range of attitudes from the lowest to the highest echelons of society, from coarseness to adoration. The century owed its originality to this general attention to subtle feelings, amorous casuistry (the focus of Marivaux's plays) and the flirtatious thrill that inhabits painting and sculpture even more intensely than literature. Watteau's album of French fashions provided models for the billowy, waistless dresses called ballandes. By 1715 hoop skirts were seen on the fashionable promenade of the Tuileries, with petticoats draped over wicker frames to create a broad new silhouette. The inevitable counterpart was the development of the upper body, notably with décolleté bodices and complex coiffures. The French art of dress and "cosmetics" played a driving role, fueled by portraiture and engravings. The image of woman as vaguely smiling idol became so dominant that it imposed its modern accouterments on mythology and history."
– André Chastel, from French Art: The Ancien Régime, 1620-1775, translated by Deke Dusinberre (Flammarion, 1996)
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| Pierre Subleyras Portrait of Giovanna Bagnara ca. 1739 oil on canvas Walters Art Museum, Baltimore |
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| Nicolas de Largillière Portrait of François-Armand de Gontaut, Duc de Biron 1714 oil on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Jean-Baptiste Greuze Presumed portrait of the Chevalier de Damery ca. 1765 oil on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Marguerite Gérard Portrait of a man in his study ca. 1785 oil on panel Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun Portrait of a young woman ca. 1797 oil on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
"You agree, then, that there is not, nor could there be, either an entire subsisting animal nor a portion of a subsisting animal which, strictly speaking, you could take as a primary model. You agree that this model is purely ideal, and that it is not directly imprinted on any of the individual images in nature, copies of which have remained in your imagination, and that you can summon up at will, hold before your eyes and slavishly copy, to the extent that you wish to avoid portraiture. You agree that, when you make something beautiful, you do not make it of something that exists or even of something that could exist. You agree that the difference between the portraitist and yourself, a man of genius, is essentially that the portraitist faithfully renders nature as it is, and by inclination remains on the third order of reality, while you seek out the truth, the primary model, and ceaselessly attempt to raise yourself to the second order."
– Denis Diderot, from the Salon of 1767, translated by John Goodman (Yale University Press, 1995)
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| attributed to Joseph Boze Portrait of two boys, said to be the Autichamp brothers ca. 1785 oil on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| François Boucher Young woman with flowers in her hair before 1770 oil on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Jean-Baptiste Greuze The white hat ca. 1780 oil on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Maurice Quentin de La Tour Portrait of Jean-Charles Garnier d'Isle ca. 1750 pastel and gouache on blue paper, mounted on canvas Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Maurice Quentin de La Tour Portrait of a woman in a rose-colored gown ca. 1755 pastel Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
"The category of "painter in pastels" was recognized by the Academy when Maurice Quentin de La Tour, after becoming an associate in 1737, was made a full member in 1746. The arrival in Paris of the Venetian propagandist for pastel, Rosalba Carriera, converted La Tour to the medium. The powdery, delicate effect of pastels enchanted aristocratic clients, yielding a fashionable art which repeated the same pose, same smile, same absence of background."
– André Chastel, from French Art: The Ancien Régime, 1620-1775, translated by Deke Dusinberre (Flammarion, 1996)
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| Marie-Denise Villers Miniature portrait of an unknown woman ca. 1790 pigment on ivory Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Antoine Vestier Miniature portrait of Mlle Marie-Nicole Vestier, the artist's daughter at her easel 1785 watercolor on ivory Walters Art Museum, Baltimore |
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| Anonymous French painter Miniature portrait of an unknown woman ca. 1790 pigment on ivory, mounted on gold box lid Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Jacques-Joseph de Gault Miniature portrait of Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte, daughter of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette 1795 pigment on ivory Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |