# Landscape

Largillierre touches the viewer's sensibility by prioritizing color in his art. He takes freedom in the dislocation of planes and uses a particular treatment of space and light to utilize all parts of the painting. Largillière had seen and studied nature for many years, copying it, which enabled him to manipulate space at will. What's more, before becoming a portraitist, he painted many still lifes, as well as a few landscapes during his English period. His earlier landscape paintings justify the quality of the trees seen in the left-hand corner of the portrait's background, which may allude to the woman's garden.

He drew inspiration from Flemish painter Anton Van Dyck in the gentle treatment of diffused light and the lightness of the tree leaves, recalling Anton Van Dyck's 1632 portrait of Lord Philip Wharton, with a diffuse idyllic landscape in the background.

Anton VAN DYCK, Philip Lord Wharton, 1632,
oil on canvas, 133x106cm,
Washington DC, National Gallery of Art.
Credit: Andrew W. Mellon Collection
Public domain

In the portrait of Marguerite Elisabeth de Largillierre, the viewer is introduced to the trees gradually, as they appear lighter and lighter towards the top. The leaves become darker towards the left of the scene. The sun shines directly on them from the right, which is visible in the yellow highlights on the leaves. Behind this tree, a thick fog covers the sky, revealing other trees in the background.