Sunday, December 3, 2017

Blue-draped ladies* - portraits by Nattier


 Marie-Madeleine Balletti, known as Manon Balletti, later the wife of Jacques-François Blondel, 1757. (Previously the fiancée of Casanova.)
Marie Henriette, comtesse d'Andlau, née de Polastron, 1743.
Barbara Luigia Elisabetta D'Adda, contessa di Bronno, 1747.
A Woman with a Blue Mantle, 1742.
Portrait of a Lady, previously identified as the Duchesse de la Rochefoucauld, date unknown.
Madame de La Porte, 1754. (The lady appears to be the wife of a fellow artist.)
Marie-Charlotte, marquise de Belestat, née de Châteaurenaud, 1755.
Mademoiselle Marsollier, 1757.
 Marie-Charlotte, marquise de Clermont-Gallerande, née de Bragelongne, 1740.
Marie Françoise de La Cropte de St. Abre, marquise d'Argence, 1744. (Alright, perhaps her drapery is more gray than blue...?
Éléonore Louise Le Gendre de Berville, later marquise du Hallay-Coëtquen, 1751. (And, alright, this drapery is rather more green than blue... )
(... and she's not so much draped with it, as she is clutching at it... but isn't she pretty...? She would have been only 11 when this was painted.)
Portrait of a Woman, said to be the marquise Perrin de Cypierre, 1753.

***

* Pedantic aside: Nattier painted plenty of other portraits of ladies emerging from floating swathes of blue silk drapery, but for this group I only chose those in which the model was otherwise attired in actual - rather than allegorical or pointedly "artistic" - dress.




4 comments:

  1. Interestingly (to me at any rate) Elsie de Wolfe often referred to a "Nattier Blue", so then at the first 2 or 3 images that would manifest itself as a greyed blue with pinkish undertones. Then the whole theory collapses with all the variations in images that followed--cold blues, green blues, silvery blues etc some of which were likely affected by ageing varnish. But enough of my pedantry! This was a charming post.

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    Replies
    1. Ah, but your "pedantry" warms my equally (at least) pedantic heart! Et merci, comme toujours. : )

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  2. I like seeing the same sort of 'natural' posies on the top of each lady's head. Really charming.

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