Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings Signed and dated (lower right): Nattier p.x. / 1756.
Gallery Label The sitter here is shown in the rather less modern form of a disguised portrait, as Diana, goddess of the hunt, with her traditional attributes, the bow, the quiver of arrows, and the tiger skin. She is dressed in (virginal) white. It seems likely that she was a Mademoiselle Belot, who married, in 1756, as his third wife, Etienne de Maison-Rouge, "receveur général des finances." The tightly coiffed and powdered hair worn with a small corsage of flowers was typical for the time.
Notes The sitter has been convincingly identified as Mademoiselle Belot, who married in 1756 Etienne de Maison-Rouge, receveur général des finances. In 1777 she was painted by Nattier in the guise of Venus (collection of Lynda and Stewart Resnick, Los Angeles).
Provenance ?comtesse de Montdésir, château de Montdésir, near Cherbourg; [Gimpel & Wildenstein, New York, until 1903; sold to MMA]
Exhibition History Athens. National Pinakothiki, Alexander Soutzos Museum. "Treasures from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: Memories and Revivals of the Classical Spirit," August 15–November 15, 1979, no. 54.
Versailles. Musée national des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon. "Jean-Marc Nattier," October 26, 1999–January 30, 2000, no. 76.
References Pierre de Nolhac. J.-M. Nattier: Peintre de la cour de Louis XV . Paris, 1905, p. 122 [2nd ed., Paris, 1910, p. 201], as an unknown woman, incorrectly identified as the princesse de Condé as Diana, recently acquired by the Metropolitan Museum.in "Nattier 1685 à 1766." Les peintres français du XVIIIe siècle: Histoire des vies et catalogue des oeuvres . Paris, 1930, vol. 2, p. 17, no. 139, as "Inconnue en Diane".The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalogue of French Paintings . 1, Cambridge, Mass., 1955, pp. 121–23, ill., as "Portrait of a Lady as Diana".Diary of an Art Dealer . English ed. New York, 1966, p. 298, observes that his father's biggest sale of the 1902–03 New York season was to the Metropolitan Museum: this Nattier and a Largillière for $70,000.Oxford, China, and Italy: Writings in Honour of Sir Harold Acton on his Eightieth Birthday . London, 1984, p. 231.Courbet's Hunt Scenes: The End of a Tradition . Providence, 1990, p. 18, no. 19.Jean-Marc Nattier, 1685–1766 . Exh. cat., Musée national des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon. Paris, 1999, pp. 100, 184, 266–70, no. 76, ill. (color), identifies the sitter as Madame de Maison-Rouge, who also sat for a portrait in the guise of Venus which was exhibited at the Salon of 1757.
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