Portrait of Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville

This virtuoso violinist and composer (1711-1772) was second in command at the royal chapel and director of the Orchestra of the Spiritual Concert, both important musical institutions in eighteenth century Paris, and was as renowned for his theater pieces as he was for his motets. La Tour was a close friend, and a newly elected member of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, when he captured this informal but sympathetic pose of de Mondonville tuning his violin. It was shown in the Salon of 1747.