A Girl with a Kitten

Perronneau’s pastels show less technical virtuosity than Maurice Quentin de La Tour’s, perhaps quite deliberately. Something of a preparation remains in the finished portrait, giving a gritty, unflattering, yet forceful character to his work. He is less concerned with simulating the texture of skin or hair, for example, than with lively drawing in pastel; the strokes remain, and add their vibrancy to Perronneau’s sharp observation. His sitters are seldom smiling or exuding a charming vitality: if anything, they often seem rather heavy and disagreeable - but very convincing.