Jean Marc Nattier and Studio

Comte de Baillon, as of 1874;
Baronne de Gartempe;
Eugène Glaenzer, New York and Paris, as of 1904;
Otto H. Kahn (1867-1934), New York, as of 1919;
By whom sold to "une petite marchande qui le vendit à M. Bayer" (see R. Gimpel, 1963, cited below);
Edwin S. Bayer (1870-1929), New York;
with Wildenstein & Co., Paris and New York;
Earl Stendahl, Los Angeles, as of 1937.

Paris, Palais de la Présidence du Corps Législatif, Explication des ouvrages de peinture exposés au profit de la colonisation de l'Algérie par les Alsaciens Lorrains, April 1874, no. 362;
Paris, Galerie Ruhlman, 1932 (according to G. Pascal, cited below);
Paris, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, Le Siècle de Louis XV vu par les artistes, June 1934, no. 25, entitled "La Princesse de Conti";
Los Angeles, Stendahl Art Gallery, Twenty-five Masterpieces of European Painters, 1935, no number;
Los Angeles, Art Association, Loan Exhibition of International Art, 15 October - 15 December 1937, no. 80, reproduced p. 18.

G. Göthe, Notice descriptive des tableaux du Musée National de Stockholm, part 1, Maìtres étrangers non scandinaves (2^nd ed.), Stockholm 1900, under no. 1186;
C.D., "Du Portrait de la Duchesse d'Orléans, née Conti, par J.M. Nattier," in Les Arts, 36, December 1904, p. 30, reproduced p. 31;
P. de Nolhac, J.-M. Nattier,  peintre de la cour de Louis XV, Paris 1905, p. 147, reproduced in color, facing p. 38 [2nd ed., 1910, p. 238; 3rd ed., 1925, p. 263];
G. Huard, "Nattier," in L. Dimier, ed., Les Peintres français du XVIIIe siècle:  histoire des vies et catalogue des oeuvres, Paris and Brussels 1930, vol. II, n.p., under no. 44;
G. Pascal, "Les Oeuvres d'art et les intérieurs modernes," in Beaux-Arts, I, 25 January 1932, reproduced p. 11 (paintings as displayed at the Galerie Ruhlmann);
L. Vauxcelles, "Le Siècle de Louis XV vu par les artistes," in Le Petit Dauphinois, June 1934, reproduced;
Paris, Musée des Arts Dècoratifs, Exposition rétrospective E.-J. Ruhlmann, 1934, reproduced;
Paris, Galerie Jean Charpentier, Catalogue des objets d'art..., tableaux anciens..., composant l'importante collection de feu Madame Louis Burat, 17-18 June 1937, n.p., under the entry for lot 5;
R. Gimpel, Journal d'un collectionneur, marchand de tableaux, Paris 1963, p. 107, note 1 (visit of the author to the collection of Mrs. Otto H. Kahn, 17 February 1919, with an appended note of 1931) [English ed., Diary of an Art Dealer (trans. by J. Rosenberg), New York 1966, p. 92, note 4];
P. Grate, "Nattier and the Goddess of Eternal Youth," in Nationalmuseum Bulletin, Stockholm, III, no. 3, 1979, p. 156, under note 13, no. A/3 (author states incorrectly that the present painting is purported to be signed and dated 1741 and confuses it with the version formerly in the Burat collection);
P. Grate, French Paintings II:  Eighteenth Century, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm 1994, p. 215, note 3A;
P. Renard, Jean-Marc Nattier (1685-1766).  Un artiste parisien à la cour de Louis XV, Saint-Rémy-en-l'Eau 1999, pp. 80, 177, under "1744."

An old glue relining is firm and stable. under a dirty, yellowed old varnish. there are several old, discolored retouches in the upper sky over what appear to be small repaired holes; another can be seen in the clouds at lower left and another area on her torso. the paint surface has been very well preserved overall and there is lovely retention of the detail. in addition to the aforementioned retouches, ultraviolet light reveals some older retouching to hair and left cheek, and some along the right edge. the old, dirty varnish is difficult to read through. the painting would benefit from a light cleaning and re-addressing of the old discolored repaints. it should brighten and be a very attractive and impressive painting. In an elaborately carved and gilt wood frame with some minor nicks to the gilding and some other minor losses.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Recognized as one of the most beautiful women in the French Royal family, the sitter in the present portrait is Louise Henriette de Bourbon, known prior to her marriage as Mademoiselle de Conti, the daughter of Louis Armand II de Bourbon, Prince de Conti (1695-1727), and his wife Louise Elisabeth de Bourbon-Condé.  Born in Paris on 20 June 1726, she was married at Versailles to her cousin Louis Philippe, Duc de Chartres (1725-1785) on 17 December 1743.  At the death of Louis Philippe's father in 1752, the couple became the Duc and Duchesse d'Orléans.  Notoriously unfaithful to her husband, the Duchesse was known for her caustic, often cruel, sense of humor.  After a long illness, she died in Paris at the Palais Royal on 9 February 1759, at the age of only thirty-three, and was buried in the church of the Royal abbey of the Val de Grâce.

Nattier has depicted the eighteen-year-old Duchesse in the mythological guise of Hebe, the cupbearer to the gods of Olympus and the personification of youthful beauty.  She holds an ornate crystal and gold wine beaker and a cup from which Zeus, in the form of an eagle with flaming lightning bolts clutched in his talons, has swooped down from the heavens to drink.  Nattier's images of beautiful young noblewomen in the guises of mythological figures were quite popular, and the Duchesse d'Orléans was not the only woman to sit to Nattier as Hebe (for example, a portrait of Anne-Josèphe Bonnier de la Mosson, duchesse de Chaulnes, représentée en Hébé is preserved in the Louvre, Paris, inv. no. RF 1942-32). 

Nattier's portrait, Jeune Femme en Hébé, which was engraved in the third quarter of the 18^th century by François Hubert and is now preserved in the Musée Condé, Chantilly (inv. no. 376), was at one time believed to be the prime version of the present composition.  However, the woman depicted in that painting looks quite different in complexion and bearing from known portraits of the Duchesse d'Orléans.  Scholars now believe that it is more likely that the prime version is the painting in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm (inv. no. NM 1186), which is signed and dated, Nattier pinxit / 1744,¹ and which may have been the version exhibited at the Salon of 1745 (no. 97 in the Salon livret). 

The present work is to be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the works of Jean Marc Nattier being prepared by Joseph Baillio with the assistance of the Wildenstein Institute, as a replica with studio assistance.


1.  For a full discussion of the Chantilly and Stockholm pictures, see X. Salmon, Jean-Marc Nattier:  1685-1766, Paris 1999, no. 70, pp. 247-250.