Jean-Marc Nattier

Painter, born in Paris, France. The son of artist parents, he trained as an engraver and achieved fame as a portraitist of women at the court of Louis XV. He portrayed his subjects as mythological characters in a style which has become known as ‘le portrait Nattier’. His works include ‘Madame de Lambresc as Minerva’ (1737, Louvre) and ‘Duchesse d'Orléans as Hebe’ (1745).

Jean-Marc Nattier (1685 - 1766), French painter, was born in Paris, the son of Marc Nattier, a portrait painter, and of Marie Courtois, a miniaturist.

He received his first instruction from his father, and having applied himself to copying pictures at the Luxembourg Gallery, he refused to proceed to the French Academy in Rome, though he had taken the first prize at the Paris Academy at the age of fifteen. In 1715 he went to Amsterdam, where Peter the Great was then staying, and painted portraits of the tsar and the empress Catherine, but declined an offer to go to Russia.

Between 1715 and 1720 he devoted himself to compositions like the "Battle of Pultawa", which he painted for Peter the Great, and the "Petrification of Phineus and of his Companions", which led to his election to the Academy. at Nantes the portrait of "La Camargo" and "A Lady of the Court of Louis XV". At Orleans a Head of a Young Girl, at Marseilles a portrait of "Mme de Pompadour", at Perpignan a portrait of Louis XV, and at Valenciennes a portrait of "Le Duc de Boufflers". The Versailles Museum owns an important group of two ladies, and the Dresden Gallery a portrait of the "Maréchal de Saxe". At the Wallace collection Nattier is represented by "The Comtesse de Dillires", "The Bath" (Mdlle de Clermont), "Portrait of a Lady in Blue", "Marie Leczinska" and "A Prince of the House of France". A portrait of the Comtesse de Neubourg and her Daughter formed part of the Vaile Collection, and realized 4500 guineas at the sale of this collection in 1903.