Anne-Rosalie Bocquet Filleul, often referred to as Rosalie Filleul, was a painter, pastellist and miniaturist specialising in portraits and still lifes (though none of the latter are traceable today). She was admitted to the Académie de Saint-Luc in 1774 and in the same year presented at the Académie’s exhibition an oil portrait of artist Charles Eisen (1720–1788) with a group of pastels. Critics praised her ability to capture a likeness. Over the next two decades she became closely associated with the court, and produced portraits of the royal family.

R. Filleul was born in Paris where her father, Blaise Bocquet, was a shopkeeper and fan-maker, a craft requiring painting and drawing skills. Her mother, Marie-Rosalie Hallé probably also had artistic training; her guardian was a master-carpenter and her marriage contract included professional earnings, possibly from decorative painting. Given her parents’ backgrounds, it is likely the young R. Filleul received rudimentary drawing lessons at home. From at least the age of 14, however, she trained with history painter Gabriel Briard (1725 or 1729–1777). In his studio she began her lifelong friendship with fellow-pupil Élisabeth Vigée Lebrun (1755–1842). In 1774, the women were admitted into the Académie de Saint-Luc together, and in the 1770s both made copies of royal portraits for the Menus-Plaisirs du Roi – an organisation which coordinated artistic projects within the court. They probably obtained this work through R. Filleul’s uncle, Louis-René Bocquet (1717–1814), who designed costumes for the Menus-Plaisirs.

It was perhaps through the Menus-Plaisirs that R. Filleul met her husband, Louis Filleul de Besne, a widower almost twice her age then employed as concierge of the Château de la Muette, an infrequently used royal residence. While E. Vigée-Lebrun’s memoirs lament that her friend ceased working after marrying in 1777, this was not the case. With strengthened court connections, she produced royal portraits such as Les Enfants du Comte et de la Comtesse d’Artois (1781) and continued to work for the Menus-Plaisirs. She also became acquainted with Benjamin Franklin, who lived near Muette during his diplomatic mission to France. Her portrait of Franklin, now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, remains her best-known surviving work. It depicts the statesman, who often refused to sit for official portraits, casually conversing with his shirt unbuttoned, much as he might have appeared amongst friends. The painting typifies her style, notably her lively poses and luminous, pastel-like surfaces. The portrait was subsequently made into an engraving sold at her father’s shop.

After the Château de la Muette was decommissioned as a royal residence in 1788, the Filleuls moved to a smaller nearby estate, the Hôtel de Travers. Her husband died shortly thereafter but R. Filleul continued to work and receive a royal pension. As Revolution approached, E. Vigée-Lebrun and other friends fled France. R. Filleul however, remained in Paris, hopeful for positive change. Unfortunately in 1794, she, her mother, and their friend the painter Marguerite Chalgrin (1760–1794) were arrested for wrongfully possessing candles and other royal furnishings now belonging to the Republic. They were guillotined on the same year.