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Jean-Marc NATTIER (Paris 1685 - 1766)
Portrait of Madame Inf…
See original version (French)
414
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Jean-Marc NATTIER (Paris 1685 - 1766)
Portrait of Madame Inf…
See original version (French)
Estimate €80,000 - €120,000
Voluntary lot
Description
Jean-Marc NATTIER (Paris 1685 - 1766)
Portrait of Madame Infante, Louise Elisabeth de France, Duchess of Parma, as a vestal virgin
Canvas
136 x 104 cm
Provenance :
Collection of Prince Czartoryski, Paris, Hôtel Lambert, before 1930 ;
Anonymous sale, Paris, Palais Galliera (Mes Couturier et Nicolay), 2 December 1975, no. 34, reproduced;
Anonymous sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, (Me Briest), 12 December 1994, reproduced;
Acquired at this sale by the father of the current owners.
Bibliography:
L. Dimier, Les Peintres français du XVIIIe siècle, 1930, tome II, n°76, reproduced pl. 22 ;
Catalogue of the exhibition Jean-Marc Nattier, Musée de Versailles, 2000, p. 230, reproduced fig. 2.
Our painting is an autograph replica of the painting (probably signed and dated) that appeared on the New York market in 1998. The National Gallery in Parma holds a reduced version of the latter (see cat. expo. 2000, p.230, reproduced fig. 3). A replica from the Lacaze collection is in the Musée de Pau.
Louise Elisabeth de France (1727 - 1759) was the first child of Louis XV and Marie Leszczynska. As such, she was known as Madame Première. She had a twin sister, Henriette (who died in 1752). The eldest of eight girls and only one boy, she was brought up in the princely wing of Versailles, while her four younger sisters were sent to Fontevrault Abbey. In 1739, she was betrothed to the Spanish infant Philip (1720 - 1765), the youngest son of King Philip V, who was also her cousin. The marriage took place by proxy and was celebrated with lavish parties in Paris. Louise Elisabeth became Madame Infante.
Louise Elisabeth and Philippe created the House of Bourbon-Parma, since Philippe, now Duke Philippe I of Parma, inherited the dukedom from his mother Elisabeth Farnese once the War of the Austrian Succession was over in 1748.
They had three children: Isabelle, future wife of Emperor Joseph II of Austria, brother of Marie-Antoinette, Ferdinand I, future Duke of Parma, and Marie-Louise, who married Charles IV of Spain.
Bored at the court of Madrid and then Parma, Louise Elisabeth often returned to France, spending long periods with her parents in Versailles, where she died of smallpox. She is buried in the royal necropolis of Saint Denis.
See original version (French)
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