DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68073#0316
290 OLD WORLD MASTERS
Sophie was married to Pierre Frangois Marie de Baglion, Comte de la
Salle. After twenty-three years of marriage the Marquise de Baglion
died in 1756. Her only daughter, Frangoise Sophie Scholastique de
Baglion (who was married to Denis Auguste Grimoard de Beauvoir,
Marquis du Roure, Colonel of the Grenadiers of France of Saintonge,
of Dauphine, and later brigadier), was lady-in-waiting to the Dau-
phine (Marie Antoinette), and was a great friend of Madame de
Pompadour, whom she usually accompanied on her visits to Choisy.
In this exquisite picture, La Marquise de Baglion, an unusually
beautiful woman, who has great intelligence in her face, as well as
beauty, appears in a very decollete dress, which shows her dazzling
neck and shoulders. Her aristocratic hand, long and beautifully
shaped, lightly holds a blue scarf—“Nattier blue”—filled with lovely
flowers. Flowers are as nearly important as the Goddess of Flowers
herself; and, consequently, Nattier has shown himself here the equal
of any painter who specialized in flowers.
The picture was much talked of in its day at Versailles; in the
boudoirs; at the toilet of the marquise; and at the petits soupers of the
King, Louis XV. Many poets have sung its praises. One of the latest
and best tributes is by Roger Miles called a Madrigal for a Portrait of -
the Marquise de Baglion painted by Nattier. Tn reading it we cannot
help regretting that the beautiful Flora could not have read these
sympathetic verses:
MADRIGAL
{Pour un Portrait de la Marquise de Baglion peint par Nattier)
Des le matin, dans la rosie, au fond du pare,
La Marquise s’en fut, pour saluer I’Aurora,
Et les cerfs inquiets qui sommeillaient encore,
Pour Diane la prenant, des yeux cherchaient son arc.
Mais elle n’etait pas la Deesse farouche
Et, si parfois ses yeux ont pu lancer ces traits,
Ses victimes devaient y trouver des attraits,
Tant le sourire avail de douceur sur sa bouche.
Elle allait simplement, fibre de sa beaute,
Humilier les fleurs ^closes pour lui plaire,
Sachant lew jalousie aimable et sans colere,
Ames oil des parfums chantent la volupte
Sophie was married to Pierre Frangois Marie de Baglion, Comte de la
Salle. After twenty-three years of marriage the Marquise de Baglion
died in 1756. Her only daughter, Frangoise Sophie Scholastique de
Baglion (who was married to Denis Auguste Grimoard de Beauvoir,
Marquis du Roure, Colonel of the Grenadiers of France of Saintonge,
of Dauphine, and later brigadier), was lady-in-waiting to the Dau-
phine (Marie Antoinette), and was a great friend of Madame de
Pompadour, whom she usually accompanied on her visits to Choisy.
In this exquisite picture, La Marquise de Baglion, an unusually
beautiful woman, who has great intelligence in her face, as well as
beauty, appears in a very decollete dress, which shows her dazzling
neck and shoulders. Her aristocratic hand, long and beautifully
shaped, lightly holds a blue scarf—“Nattier blue”—filled with lovely
flowers. Flowers are as nearly important as the Goddess of Flowers
herself; and, consequently, Nattier has shown himself here the equal
of any painter who specialized in flowers.
The picture was much talked of in its day at Versailles; in the
boudoirs; at the toilet of the marquise; and at the petits soupers of the
King, Louis XV. Many poets have sung its praises. One of the latest
and best tributes is by Roger Miles called a Madrigal for a Portrait of -
the Marquise de Baglion painted by Nattier. Tn reading it we cannot
help regretting that the beautiful Flora could not have read these
sympathetic verses:
MADRIGAL
{Pour un Portrait de la Marquise de Baglion peint par Nattier)
Des le matin, dans la rosie, au fond du pare,
La Marquise s’en fut, pour saluer I’Aurora,
Et les cerfs inquiets qui sommeillaient encore,
Pour Diane la prenant, des yeux cherchaient son arc.
Mais elle n’etait pas la Deesse farouche
Et, si parfois ses yeux ont pu lancer ces traits,
Ses victimes devaient y trouver des attraits,
Tant le sourire avail de douceur sur sa bouche.
Elle allait simplement, fibre de sa beaute,
Humilier les fleurs ^closes pour lui plaire,
Sachant lew jalousie aimable et sans colere,
Ames oil des parfums chantent la volupte