Jean-Marc Nattier was a French painter. Nattier was associated with the Rococo style.
Background
Nattier was born in Paris, France, on March 17, 1685. He was the second son of Marc Nattier, a portrait painter and a member of the Royal Academy of France, and of Marie Courtois, a miniature painter. When his mother was only twenty-two years of age, she became paralyzed and was an invalid for the remainder of her life. Jean-Marc Nattier's had a brother, Jean Baptiste. He was the godchild of the history painter Jean Jouvenet.
Education
Jean-Marc Nattier and his brother, Jean Baptiste, from the earliest childhood, had shown such a marked inclination for painting, and their father determined to make every sacrifice for their advancement in the art. And his expectations were met, for the boys responded to his wishes with genuine enthusiasm for the study.
Nattier received his first instruction from his father, and from his uncle, the history painter Jean Jouvenet. He entered the Académie de Peinture et de Sculpture (today a part of the Académie des Beaux-Arts) in 1703. Concurrently, he copied pictures in the Luxembourg Palace, making a series of drawings of the Marie de Médici painting cycle by Peter Paul Rubens.
After his father's death, Jean-Marc Nattier devoted himself still more diligently to study. The Duc d'Antin, noticing his great endeavour at the Academy, proposed that he should go to Rome, where as a pensioner of the king he might take a place in the French Academy; but Nattier declined this honour. Later, however, the artist bitterly regretted his decision, and could never forgive himself for having lost such an opportunity.
Nattier's engravings based on his series of drawing of the Marie de Médicis were published in 1710; this publication brought him his first success. In 1715 he went to Amsterdam, where he painted portraits of the Russian tsar, Peter the Great, and his wife, Empress Catherine. When these works had been completed to the satisfaction of the tsar, he offered Nattier to move to Russia, but the artist rejected the tsar’s proposal.
Jean-Marc Nattier had an intention to become a history painter. Between 1715 and 1720 he devoted himself to creating such compositions as "Battle of Pultawa", which he painted for Peter the Great, and "Petrification of Phineus and of his Companions".
The financial crisis of 1720 caused by the schemes of Law destroyed so many fortunes and had such a disastrous effect upon Nattier's finances that he found himself forced to devote his whole energy to portraiture, which was more profitable, and he was soon fortunate enough to acquire a great reputation in that area.
Nattier became the painter of the artificial ladies of Louis XV's court. Subsequently, he revived the genre of the allegorical portrait, in which a living person is depicted as a Greco-Roman goddess or another mythological figure. His graceful portraits of court ladies in this style were very fashionable, partly because he could prettify a sitter while also retaining her likeness. Among the most notable examples of his straightforward portraiture were "Marie Leczinska", and a group of the artist surrounded by his family, "The Artist Surrounded by His Family", dated 1730.
In 1734 the Chevalier d'Orléans, grand prior of the order of Saint John of Jerusalem, asked Nattier to complete the decoration of his painting gallery in the Palais du Temple. Jean-Marc Nattier painted a series of six history pictures, including several "Muses" (perhaps "Thalia and Terpsichore", painted in 1739) and allegorical representations of "Justice", "Prudence" and "Fortitude", as well as a large, full-length portrait of his patron the grand prior as a military commander.
Jean-Marc Nattier regularly exhibited his works at the Salon from 1737. He received a ceaseless flow of commissions from private and state sources. The famous Madame Geoffrin sat for him as a Sibyl; and in contrast, her daughter, the Marquise de la Ferté Imbault, was dressed for a masked ball. In 1740 the painter created portraits of two daughters of the Marquis de Nesles, both paramours of Louis XV, whom he treated as personifications of Silence and Dawn.
Nattier exhibited seven artworks at the Salon of 1745, the year he painted a now-lost portrait of Louis XV. In 1745 the artist became an associate professor at the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture (now part of the Académie des Beaux-Arts). At the Salon that year, he displayed several portraits, including the National Gallery of Art's Joseph Bonnier de la Mosson. Nattier was soon commissioned to paint the king's new mistress, the marquise de Pompadour, provocatively dressed as Diana, goddess of the hunt.
In 1748, the painter sketched from life head studies of Louis XV's children, including the twins Élisabeth, Duchess of Parma, and Henriette; Adélaïde; Victoire; and the eldest son, Louis Ferdinand; they were models for future portraits. In 1752 Nattier was made professor in the Académie.
By the mid-1750s Jean-Marc Nattier's reputation was waning. His submissions to the Salon of 1755 were found pretentious. In 1759 he exhibited a portrait of Madame Adélaïde holding a musical score and "Vestal", which caused the hostility of Diderot. In 1761 the sight of Nattier's portrait of the Duchess of Parma at the Salon prompted Diderot to exclaim: "Does that man not have a friend who will tell him the truth?" The old and infirm artist found himself in such a difficult financial situation that he had to sell his art collection and the contents of his studio.
Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour as Diana
Portrait of Tsar Peter I
Portrait de la comtesse de Sérent
Madame de La Porte
Portrait of Mary Adelaide of France as Diana
Die Liebenden
The Comtesse de Tillières
Comtesse Tessin
The Music Lesson
Portrait of Madame Maria Zeffirina
Mademoiselle de Clermont as a Sultana
Madame Louise of France
Madame Adélaïde de France Tying Knots
Thalia, Muse of Comedy
Portrait of Louis Tocqué
Portrait of Alexander Kurakin
Marie Leszczyńska, Queen of France, Reading the Bible
Adam Tarło
Justice punishing Injustice
Portrait de Victoire de France
The Apotheosis of Henri IV and the Proclamation of the Regency of Marie de Médicis after Rubens
Portrait of Marie Leszczynska
Portrait of the Princesse de Beauveau, née Sophie Charlotte de la Tour D'Auvergne
Portrait of a lady
Portrait of an elegant lady in an ivory-coloured dress
Portrait de Madame François-Philippe Brochier, née Charlotte-Claudine Nattier, fille de l'artiste
Portrait of Louise-Henriette-Gabrielle de Lorraine, Duchess of Bouillon
Portrait of Fernando de Silva y Alvarez of Toledo, 12th Duke of Alba and Duke of Huescar
Portrait d'Eléonore Louise de Berville
Portrait allégorique dans un paysage
Portrait of Charlotte Louise de Rohan as Hebe
Half length portrait of a young woman wearing ermine trimmed blue silk dress and holding a letter in her right hand
Henriette von Frankreich
Portrait de la marquise de Clermont Gallerande
Violoniste debout
Membership
Nattier was made an associate member (agréé) of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture (now part of the Académie des Beaux-Arts). In 1759 he was elected an associate member of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art.
Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art
,
Denmark
1759
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
Madame Tocqué: "He was most tenderly attached to his friends and to his children and such were the frankness and simplicity of his nature, the purity of his character and the sweetness of his disposition, such his scrupulous honesty and eager disinterestedness in serving others, that he fully merited the titles of a good father, a true friend, and a thoroughly upright man - titles by no means brilliant it may be, but which when taken in their fullest significance are the highest praise that can be bestowed upon a man."
Connections
Nattier married Mademoiselle de Laroche in 1724. She was a charming girl whose talents, youth, and beauty captivated his heart. However, it was financial difficulties that forced him to marry. Mademoiselle de Laroche's father was a former royal adviser to the king, and the family lived in comfort. So naturally, Jean-Marc Nattier assumed he would come into some money by marrying her.
It was not until several years after his marriage that he found out that his wife’s father had lost all his money because of Law's "System". Nattier received no dowry and had to support his wife and brood of children alone. It is known that he was the father of Marie-Catherine-Pauline Tocqué, who later married artist Louis Tocqué.