François Tronchin (1757): Art, History and Details

François Tronchin (1757) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Jean-Etienne Liotard (Swiss, 1702–1789).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This pastel drawing depicts François Tronchin, a prominent figure in his native Geneva and an impassioned patron of the arts. The table before Tronchin features a book, mathematical instruments, and papers that indicate his interests in architecture and music. Rembrandt's Lady in Bed, a painting that the Dutch master created around 1645 (today in the collection of the Scottish National Gallery) and the most highly prized painting in Tronchin's collection, rests on an easel nearby. Liotard considered the portrait of Tronchin among his finest works, and the meticulous rendering of the sitter's powdered wig, transparent flesh, and lace cuffs suggest the skill he had developed in pastel at this time.

Object facts

• Title: François Tronchin
• Date: 1757
• Creator attribution: Jean-Etienne Liotard (Swiss, 1702–1789)
• Culture: Switzerland
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: pastel on parchment
• Dimensions: Unframed: 38 x 46.3 cm (14 15/16 x 18 1/4 in.)
• Collection: DR - Swiss
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 1978.54

A detail from the museum

Jean-Etienne Liotard created portraits of eight other members of the Tronchin family around the same time as this pastel.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Moücke, Francesco. "Liotard." In Serie di ritratti degli eccellenti pittori: dipinti di propria mano che esistono nell'Imperial galleria di Firenze, 273-76. Florence: Moücke, 1762.
• Tronchin, François. Catalogue des tableaux du cabinet de M. Tronchin, conseiller d'Etat à Genève. Geneva: Tronchin, 1765.
• Liotard, Jean-Etienne. Traité des principes et des règles de la peinture [1781] Repr. Geneva: Pierre Cailler, 1945.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.