Cleveland Museum of Art

Portrait of a Woman

Jean-Marc Nattier

Date

c. 1748

Medium

oil on canvas

Culture

France, 18th century

Department

European Painting and Sculpture

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Jean-Marc Nattier was a favorite portraitist of King Louis XV of France. He held the lucrative position as the court painter for Queen Mary Lesczynski, the daughter of the exiled king of Poland. The portrait was long thought to be of Madame Henriette de France, one of the daughters of Louis XV and Queen Mary Lesczynski, but this identification is no longer accepted and the sitter remains unknown. There has been considerable confusion over the identity of many of Nattier's sitters, as they tend to conform to an idealized concept of female beauty. Though the sitters in his portraits often lack individualized traits, Nattier was fervently sought by French aristocratic women.

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