Louis Antoine de Bougainville 1790

Joseph Ducreux painted "Louis Antoine de Bougainville" in France using oil on canvas. Think about the materials, like the linen canvas painstakingly woven, and the pigments ground from minerals, that are the very stuff of this painting. Ducreux would have built up layers of paint to create the rich, textured surface we see here. Beyond the artist's skill with a brush, the painting speaks volumes about the social world of its time. The clothing of the sitter, Louis Antoine de Bougainville, from the meticulously styled wig to the finely tailored jacket with its delicate gold embellishments, all reflect the labor and resources required to produce them. These details are not merely aesthetic choices, they represent entire economies of production. Consider the weavers, dyers, tailors, and embroiderers involved in creating Bougainville's jacket alone, a testament to the complex networks of craftsmanship that underpinned 18th-century society. By looking closely at the materials and modes of production evident in this portrait, we gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between art, labor, and social status in the 1700s.