Portrait of the French Consul Le Blond

In the 1720s the French consul in Venice, Le Blond, was one of Rosalba Carriera's steadiest patrons, and this pastel is his own portrait. His household sat for her more than once, and her account book records a payment of 60 zecchini from him in 1727, the year she made it. A consul in Venice then was part diplomat, part fixer for the French travellers passing through, and men like him fed her a steady stream of French sitters. She gives him a plain, direct pose, the face turned to the light and worked in soft chalk, the wig and coat kept simple so nothing pulls attention from his expression. It is one of a group of Le Blond family pastels the Accademia still keeps together.