Jean-Marc Nattier (Paris, 1685-1766) was born into a family of artists and became the portrait artist of the French aristocracy and the court of Louis XV before he turned thirty. His success and popularity stemmed from the fact that he quickly realised he had to please women and in his female portraits he portrayed women using an allegorical scenography and style, in which they were represented as beautiful and inaccessible goddesses. Nattier’s contemporaries used to say he painted “with make-up”, alluding to his treatment of light, the vivacity emanating from his models, the seduction and lightness of fresh colouring, with a predominance of light blues that were subsequently known as “Nattier blue”.
Some of his greatest portraits include Madame de Lambesc as Minerva (Louvre Museum, Paris, 1737), the Duchesse d’Orléans as Hebe, the adolescent daughters of the Queen, Madame Adelaide as Flora (Louvre) and Madame Henriette as Diana (Versailles), or the king’s first mistress, the Duchesse de Cháteauroux, as the Goddess of Dawn (Le point du jour). The portrait on our cover is the Marchioness d’Antin, Mathilde de Canisy, one of the best examples of Nattier’s most representative style. This oil painting is part of the collection of the Musée Jacquemart-André in Paris, France.
