Portrait of Madame Cailloux bust-length, wearing a blue dress and holding a fan, seated on a Louis XV chair

The composition is typical of La Tour's pastels of the late 1740s or 1750s: a figure seated on the edge of a Louis XV chair turning the head towards the viewer and holding an object. Such examples are found in A. Besnard, La Tour, Paris, 1928: no. 311, fig. 14, Marie Leckzinka with a Fan of 1748; no. 319, fig. 17, La Dauphine Marie-Josphe de Saxe with a Book of 1747; no. 323, fig. 18, the same sitter with a Fan of 1761; no. 76, fig. 30, Lady Coventry with a Dog; no. 176, fig. 32, Madame Grimod de La Reyniere with a Fan of 1751; no. 264, fig. 66, Marguerite Le Comte with a Manuscript of 1753.
The sitter is traditionally identified as Madame Cailloux.