LOUIS TOCQUÉ | Presumed portrait of Marianne d'Auvray, marquise de Becdelièvre, half length, in a white dress with a blue satin shawl

Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 25 July 1924, lot 111 (as by "Nattier" and a portrait of the marquise de Becdelièvre);
Baron Guilibert;
With Wildenstein & Co., New York;
Anonymous sale, New York, Parke-Bernet Galleries, 8-10 November 1956, lot 416 (as by "Nattier" and a portrait of Madame Bourbon-Conti);
Anonymous sale, Paris, Galerie Charpentier, Me Ader, 21 March 1958, lot 182 (as by "Nattier");
Private collection.

P. Conisbee, French paintings of the fifteenth through the eighteenth century, Washington 2009, p. 349, reproduced fig. 2.

Although the original portrait of this aristocratic lady by Jean-Marc Nattier has since disappeared, several contemporary copies are known. Indeed, Joseph Baillio mentions the existence of at least three versions. The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. possesses a very fine one, but the present work is even more beautiful than the Washington version. A third is known solely through illustrations [1]. Since in the present version the lady's features seem to have been less 'prettified', it is probably the closest to the lost original [2].

The lady faces us against a background showing a landscape with trees and sky, wearing a light grey silk dress over a chemise with puffed sleeves. A silken ribbon is knotted around her waist. Her body is enveloped in a length of blue satin with an edging of gold. Her powdered hair is arranged toward the back in a style associated with Madame de Pompadour, the hairstyle ornamented here with different flowers. A floral garland passes over her left shoulder and across her breast. This portrait type was especially popular among Nattier's female clientele during the 1740s and 1750s.

Joseph Baillio has suggested that the sitter may be the marquise de Becdelièvre, born Marie Anne d'Anviray de Machonville (1719-1787), who married Hilarion-François, marquis de Becdelièvre, in 1740. However, the lady in our portrait also closely resembles the princess Louise Henriette de Bourbon-Conti (1726-1759), known as Mademoiselle de Conti, who became through marriage first duchess of Chartres (1743) and later duchess of Orléans (1753). Nattier portrayed the duchess of Chartres, known at the time as the most beautiful member of the royal family, several times.

[1] See P. Conisbee, French paintings of the fifteenth through the eighteenth century, Washington, Princeton University Press 2009, p. 349, fig 1.
[2] Ibidem, p. 349.