Madame de Pompadour

Madame de Pompadour (1759) by François Boucher. Its palette is led by soot (#0c1815, 40%) and dark umber (#40331e, 34%), with accents of oatmeal. Overall the canvas is dark, muted and warm.

Color reading

Brown and black cover nearly nine-tenths of the canvas. Even its most colorful tone, brown #6B5741, stays close to gray.

Palette

#0c1815 MG 223 soot 40.1% of canvas
#40331e MG 186 dark umber 34.1% of canvas
#6b5741 MG 167 brown 15.8% of canvas
#8a7865 MG 174 warm grey 8.7% of canvas
#bfb4a3 MG 172 oatmeal 1.3% of canvas

Color families

Brown 52%, Black 34%, Green 14%, Gray 0%, Red 0%

Measurements

Lightness: 0.33
Contrast: 0.42
Vividness: 0.025
Warmth: +0.99
Complexity: 121 cells
Hue range: 0.47
Focus: 0.08

Composition

53% of the visual weight is in the left half, 57% in the lower half. Symmetry 0.59 (how closely its shapes and edges mirror each other). 29% of the canvas is calm space. Half of the detail sits in 32% of the canvas. Measured from the image, not a rule the painter followed.

Details

Date: 1759
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 91.0 × 68.0 cm
Genre: portrait
Collection: Wallace Collection, London

Download the pin · Save to Pinterest

More by François Boucher

Brown Odalisque, 1740s
La Naissance de Vénus, 1754