# Identity

Sources are unclear as to the identity of the portrait. The painting is said to have been made for the wedding of one of the painter's two daughters, and the confusion is understandable since the artist's daughters were named Elisabeth-Marguerite (b. 1701) and Marguerite-Elisabeth (b. 1703) respectively.

Nicolas de Largillierre, portrait of Elisabeth-Marguerite,
circa 1726,oil on canvas, 46.23x38.1cm,
Miami, Robert Funk Fine Art.

The choice of sitter automatically lends the composition a unique sensitivity and tenderness. Largillierre's daughters were born following the artist's marriage to Marguerite Elisabeth Forest, daughter of landscape artist Jean-Baptiste Forest. One of the daughters is shown here in the year of her own marriage, on January 13, 1726, at the age of 25, to the Minister of War Jean-Baptiste Houzé de La Boullaye. Widowed in 1733, she subsequently remarried Jacques de Farevolles.