Art: De Latour

In Paris, an auctioneer's hammer was falling upon the properties of the late M. Paul Dutasta, secretary of the Versailles Peace Conference. They were bidding for a portrait of Mme. Rouill de Lestang, who was a handsome woman enough but more than ever desirable on a canvas signed by Maurice Quentin de Latour (1704-88), whose pastels were the glory of the Salons for 37 years, and won him a court paintership under Louis XV. Up and down went the bids, three-quarters of a million, eight-tenths, nine-tenths, the whole of a million francs (approximately...

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