DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45257#0433
JEAN MARC NATTIER
255
By Jean Marc Nattier there is at Chantilly a
life-size portrait of Mademoiselle Nantes, daughter
of Louis XIV by Madame de Montespan, and wife
of the Due de Bourbon, grandson of the Grand
Condd. Her daughter Louise Henriette, who
married the Prince de Bourbon Conti, was also
painted by Nattier 1 2; and by the same artist—one of
his best works—is the above-mentioned portrait
of Charlotte Elizabeth Soubise? the young wife of
Louis Joseph, Prince de Conde, represented pluck-
ing carnations in the gardens at Chantilly.
Nattier’s portraits of the Royal Family of
Bourbon, both in the Louvre and at Versailles, are
very numerous. He painted every one of Louis XV’s
daughters 3 and many other fair women, who, how-
ever, bear a strong general resemblance to one
another, whereby his portraits are often rendered
conventional and monotonous.
It is therefore rather refreshing to turn from Jean
Nattier to Desportes and Oudry, who both stand
on the threshold of the eighteenth century and who
revived realistic landscape painting—an art which
had practically lain dormant since the days of Pol
de Limbourg ; for Claude Lorraine and the Poussins
had directed it into wholly diverse channels.
Bnados and Balthazar, two Spanish hounds for-
merly belonging to the House of Conde, are ex-
quisitely painted by Desportes, who was highly
1 See Plate LXXIII.
2 See Plate XVI.
3 These may be seen at Versailles.
255
By Jean Marc Nattier there is at Chantilly a
life-size portrait of Mademoiselle Nantes, daughter
of Louis XIV by Madame de Montespan, and wife
of the Due de Bourbon, grandson of the Grand
Condd. Her daughter Louise Henriette, who
married the Prince de Bourbon Conti, was also
painted by Nattier 1 2; and by the same artist—one of
his best works—is the above-mentioned portrait
of Charlotte Elizabeth Soubise? the young wife of
Louis Joseph, Prince de Conde, represented pluck-
ing carnations in the gardens at Chantilly.
Nattier’s portraits of the Royal Family of
Bourbon, both in the Louvre and at Versailles, are
very numerous. He painted every one of Louis XV’s
daughters 3 and many other fair women, who, how-
ever, bear a strong general resemblance to one
another, whereby his portraits are often rendered
conventional and monotonous.
It is therefore rather refreshing to turn from Jean
Nattier to Desportes and Oudry, who both stand
on the threshold of the eighteenth century and who
revived realistic landscape painting—an art which
had practically lain dormant since the days of Pol
de Limbourg ; for Claude Lorraine and the Poussins
had directed it into wholly diverse channels.
Bnados and Balthazar, two Spanish hounds for-
merly belonging to the House of Conde, are ex-
quisitely painted by Desportes, who was highly
1 See Plate LXXIII.
2 See Plate XVI.
3 These may be seen at Versailles.