The Works Of Jean Marc Nattier

( Originally Published 1902 )

ELEANOR LEWIS 'THE COSMOPOLITAN': 1897

THE pictorial figure of the fifteenth Louis against its no less pictorial background has been a favorite subject with artists of the pen, and his life has been thoroughly investigated even as regards his family relations. We are made acquainted with the private life of this royal family, with its monotonous, comfortless luxury, its paralyzing dullness, its daily low levels of enjoyment and occasional heights of aspiration; and are led to observe the significant fact that at the most corrupt court of Europe, and possessing in husband and father the most corrupt prince in Europe, it was yet possible for that prince's wife and children to lead lives that the breath of scandal never touched.

As to the king himself, it must, in common fairness, be remembered that circumstances were against him from the first,—the age in which he lived, his surroundings, associates, early orphanage, and early accession to absolute power, for he was only five when the sequence of events placed him upon his great-grandfather's throne. There could be but one feeling for the beautiful boy with his graceful body, gold-brown curls, and dark-blue eyes, his childish dignity and gracious acceptance of the homage placed at his feet—he was more than "bien aimé," he was adored. The first concern of his advisers was to get him married. The regent had betrothed him to his three year-old cousin, an Infanta of Spain, but political intrigue broke off the match, and she was sent home. A maturer bride replaced her. In August, 1725, he wedded the Polish princess, Marie Leczinska. He was at this time fifteen, and almost ideally beautiful; while the queen, who was twenty-two, possessed in lieu of beauty a fine complexion, a charming expression, and moral graces which endeared her to the people if not to the court. Although her married life was passed at Versailles, it was passed in comparative retirement. She had a quiet circle of personal friends, while the court and the royal mistresses followed the king. At Versailles were born her ten children; whose list, beginning with twin daughters in 1727, includes two sons, one of whom died at the age of three, and concludes with a daughter in 1737.

Each princess was given a "household" at her birth, for with these babies, as with their .seniors, etiquette was rigidly observed. The eldest, known simply as "Madame," with her twin sister, Madame Henriette, the Dauphin, and Madame Adélaide, remained at court; but the four younger princesses were sent early in 1738 to be educated at the Abbey of Fontevrault, where ensued that curious routine of religious discipline, fragmentary study, and mild amusement which, under the name of their education, was to continue for more than ten years. Music and dancing, for which all the princesses had a natural aptitude, were the only branches pursued with even a semblance of system. As for solid studies, Madame Louise was twelve years old before she knew the alphabet, and her older sisters fared little better. Such discipline as there was, was exercised in the wrong direction—Mesdames Victoire and Sophie were made timid for life by being compelled to say their prayers alone in the burial-vault of the convent; while, on the other hand, there was no restraint at all in the matter of eating, and they were frequently ill from over-indulgence. Madame Félicité's fatal illness in 1744 was in the beginning merely a bad cold, but was soon aggravated into a fever by injudicious eating and excitement. In view of the danger, she was hastily baptized, —a trifling ceremony which the "Most Christian King" had hitherto forgotten,—lethargy set in, and the next day she died, at the age of eight. Their majesties did not seem much troubled at her loss: the king played and dined in public as usual; the queen dined alone for a few times, but played cards each evening and never spoke of the child again.

At about this time large allowances, out of all proportion to their manner of life, were given to Mesdames Victoire, Sophie, and Louise, and in 1747 Madame Victoire was permitted to return to Versailles. The two younger princesses remained at Fontevrault another two years and a half, thus passing more than twelve years without once seeing their parents, although at so short a distance from Versailles. They finally returned almost as untaught, almost as ignorant, as they went.

During their monotonous convent years several events of importance had taken place at court, first amongst which may be mentioned the marriage of "Madame." In 1739, being then twelve years of age, she was wedded with great expense and splendor to the Duke of Parma, and went to live in Spain. At first she was cordially welcomed, but the dislike of Elizabeth Farnese soon clouded her life. This imperious old lady blamed her daughter-in-law for everything,—for being young, for liking sweets, for possessing the love of her youthful husband, for remembering her own country, for longing for her twin sister, for existing at all when she might so much more suitably be dead. Three times, however, she had the pleasure of returning to France, where her jocund, piquant beauty was greatly admired. At her last visit, in September, 1757, she came fresh, blooming, and gay. Three months later she lay dead of smallpox at Versailles.

Scarcely happier was Madame Henriette. According to her portraits, she possessed an ivory whiteness of complexion, great tender, melancholy eyes, and delicate, aristocratic features. Unfortunate in her love for the Duc de Chartres (their marriage being forbidden by the king), parted from her twin sister, her other self, Madame Henriette found her best remaining joy in the society of the Dauphin, and in being gentle and considerate with all. More than any of her sisters she was noted for a certain gracious amiability and tact.

She shared their artistic tastes, and played the violoncello well, and excelled in drawing and in the painting of miniatures. Her father's favorite when in health, she no sooner began to fail than he turned from her with that notice-able shrinking from the thought of pain and death which grew upon him year by year. He bade her conceal her pallor under rouge, saying harshly that he did not like white faces, and she obeyed. She tried to conceal her illness itself as long as possible. Lonely in the midst of numbers, desolate in magnificent Versailles, she died, in February, 1752, murmuring some last words about "My sister, my poor sister'!" The king's grief, intense for a moment, did not interfere with his ordinary diversions, and was entirely dissipated with the superb funeral bestowed upon this sweetest of all his daughters.

Of Madame Sophie, who died in 1782, in good time to escape the Revolution, there is comparatively little to be said. She was shy, reserved, terribly afraid of thunder-storms, harmonious with the others in tastes and habits, and blends indistinguishably with the family group.

Madame Victoire followed the lead of Madame Adélaide, with her survived the rest, with her died in exile, and at about the same time.

The strongest character among the sisters was undoubtedly Madame Adélaïde. She was decidedly the best educated, and seems to have had a natural inclination for study. She understood English and Italian, was well versed in history and mathematics, and played with skill upon several instruments, especially the violin. She was, moreover, very exact in matters of etiquette—an all-important science at that time. The king often consulted her, and, where her prejudices were not aroused, her judgment was good. With advancing age she grew domineering, and whereas Madame Victoire put her finger into other people's pies out of pure gossipy interest as to their contents, Madame Adélaïde examined them as her right. . . .

The sisters usually spent the forenoon in their own rooms, reading, painting, practising, tending their flowers, and on most days receiving a short visit from the king. At about noon they dined, later were present at his majesty's "débotter," visited the queen at six, played a game of cards, concluded the evening with a hearty meal, and went early to bed. They learned to play upon various instruments, including the bass viol and the tambourine. They also seem to have read with some method, and each formed her own collection of books. Now and then they hunted, an amusement of which they were passionately fond; but this and every other pleasure yielded to that of eating. Gormandizing was a failing with all the sisters, and much of their ill-health was due to it. D'Argenson says plainly that they took far too little exercise and ate at irregular hours, always keeping in their cupboards a supply of ham, Bologna sausage, and Spanish wine. . .

The tranquil routine of Marie Leczinska's life was not interrupted by the return of her daughters from the convent. They had their own lives to lead, she hers; and she paid them hardly any attention except in matters of etiquette, for which, with all her simplicity, she was a stickler, and in requiring them to play cards with her daily at a stated hour. Their feeling for her naturally held less warmth than duty. For their father, on the other hand, reprobate though he was, they entertained a very real affection; and he, on his side, seems to have cared for them as much as he could care for any-thing. The queen's death, in 1768, drew them still closer together in their regret for a common loss; and his later intimacy with Madame du Barry did not alter their relations, except as it led Madame Louise to a convent, in 1770, the better to pray for his much imperiled soul.

In 1774, when the king died of malignant smallpox at Versailles, he could hardly be called an old man, yet he had long outlived the bright promise of his youth. Throughout his terrible infectious illness he was tenderly nursed by Mesdames Adélaïde and Victoire. They reached their moral apogee beside his death-bed. Henceforth, under the new régime, their course was steadily decadent. "The old aunts," as the "adorable princesses" were now called, found their chief occupation from this time on in criticizing Marie Antoinette, "the Austrian woman;" and sowed with lavish hands the seeds of discord. The calamities of their later years were but the legitimate harvest of their sowing.

When the storm of the Revolution burst over France, Mesdames Adélaide and Victoire, the last of their family, stood alone, like frightened children, in its path. Helpless, piteous, scared, they were thrust out from the safe seclusion of a palace into the rude streets. It was only after a long and painful debate that they were allowed to leave France. For some time they lived in Rome, then, on the approach of the French troops, withdrew to Caserta. When the Bourbons were driven from Naples the poor exiles fled once more, this time to Trieste, where they died. When Louis XVIII. came to the throne he had their bodies brought back to France, and interred in the tomb of their race at St. Denis. After so many vicissitudes, Mesdames de France sleep at last in peace.

DESCRIPTIONS OF THE PLATES

'MADAME ADELAIDE OF FRANCE AS DIANA' PLATE I

THE first portraits which Nattier painted of the daughters of Louis XV. were two companion mythological likenesses, one depicting Madame Henriette as Flora, and this picture, showing Madame Adélaide as Diana. The youthful princess is seated beneath the shadow of a rock in a glade which opens to show a distant prospect. She holds a bow in the left hand, and draws an arrow from her quiver with the right. About her waist is wrapped a leopard's skin, and the small crescent on her head suggests her allegorical divinity. The picture is wrongly listed in the Versailles gallery, where it hangs, as 'Madame Victoire en Nymphe Chasseresse.'

MARIE LECZINSKA, QUEEN OF FRANCE' PLATE II

ONE of Nattier's most successful and dignified portraits was that of the queen, Marie Leczinska, which was first exhibited in 1748, when she was forty-five years old. The queen, dressed in a red robe trimmed with fur, is seated against a background of columns draped with a green curtain. On her head is a kerchief of black lace tied over a white lace cap. Her arm rests upon a table on which lie the crown, the royal mantle, and a copy. of the Gospels. This picture originally hung in the queen's own apartment, and if not the original of the subject, which Nattier repeated many times, it is certainly a replica which he was expressly commissioned by the queen to execute for her. It is now at Versailles.

'MLLE. DE CLERMONT AS NYMPH OF THE WATERS OF CHANTILLY' PLATE III

MADEMOISELLE DE CLERMONT was the daughter of Louis III. of Bourbon, Prince of Condé, and in the romance called by her name which Madame de Genlis has written, she appears as one of the most picturesque and pathetic figures. of her time. She was, according to the novelist, of supreme beauty, great wit, and lovable character. When twenty years old she went to the celebrated watering-place, Chantilly, with her father, and soon won all hearts. Here she fell in love with a young courtier, Louis de Melun, Prince d'Epinay, and, it is reported, was clandestinely married to him. He was, according to the novel, killed in a boar hunt at Chantilly, and Mademoiselle de Clermont remained all her life faithful to his memory. Nattier's portrait of her was painted in 1729, five years after the death of her lover. It now hangs in the Condé Museum, Chantilly. It shows her as the nymph of the waters of Chantilly, seated before the spring and leaning on an urn. On her left a naiad, in a white tunic and violet drapery, pours the mineral water into a crystal cup; on her right is a child holding the serpent of Æsculapius to mark the health-giving quality of the spring. The child's body is relieved against a yellowish-green drapery; and the lady herself is clad in a light tunic, with a thin blue drapery thrown about her shoulders. Behind may be seen the pavilion of Chantilly, with its bit of formal garden, as it was in her time.

'MADAME ELISABETH, DUCHESSE DE PARME' PLATE IV

THIS portrait, at Versailles, of Madame Elisabeth, eldest daughter of Louis XV., and twin sister of Madame Henriette, was Nattier's last work. It represents the princess, who by her marriage with the Infante Don Philip of Spain had become Duchess of Parma, in a court dress, seated in a palace. Her gown is white, embroidered with gold, and her long ermine-bordered mantle is covered with fleurs-de-lis.. A crown is placed beside her upon a rococo table. The portrait was painted after the early death of the Duchess, the face being copied from one of the artist's former pictures of her.

MADAME SOPHIE OF FRANCE' PLATE V

THIS picture, at Versailles,is one of the three which Nattier painted in 1747 at Fontevrault, where he had been sent by the king without the knowledge of Marie Leczinska, that he might take the portraits of her daughters there as a surprise to her. Madame Sophie is represented in a white dress embroidered with gold, holding her veil with her right hand. It may be regarded as a companion picture to that of the little Madame Louise, painted at the same time.

'MADAME HENRIETTE OF FRANCE' PLATE VI

THIS picture, now at Versailles, is the finest full-length portrait executed by Nattier, and is especially brilliant in its scheme of color. Madame Henriette, dressed in a gown of rich red brocade patterned with gold leaves, is seated in a gilded chair before a voluminous curtain of blue silk draped across the back of the canvas. With one hand she touches the strings of a bass viol which rests against the stiff folds of her ample skirt, and in the other she holds the bow. Her bodice is embroidered with pearls, white satin bows are on her lace sleeves, and in her powdered hair are delicate pink and pale yellow flowers.

The picture was begun in 1748 and finished six years later—two years after the death of Madame Henriette. Nattier has left a letter regarding this portrait in which he speaks of it as"one of my best works, which I am sure will do me great credit."

'MADAME LOUISE OF FRANCE' PLATE VII

THIS likeness of Madame Louise, the youngest of the daughters of Louis XV., was one of those portraits painted by Nattier at the Abbey of Fontevrault, where the three younger princesses were then being educated. In a letter to the Duchesse de Luynes, the queen, writing of these portraits, says: "The two elder girls have recently grown pretty; but I have never seen anything so charming as the little one. She has such a touching, tender, sad little face, and is almost pathetically sweet and spirituelle." As M. de Nolhac has observed, "Nothing could better set forth the charm of Nattier's portrait of the little Madame Louise as a child of eleven than this maternal description of her, so delicately expressed by the queen." The picture is at Versailles.

'LA DUCHESSE D'ORLÉANS AS HEBE' PLATE VIII

THIS portrait of the Duchesse d'Orléans, formerly Madame Louise-Henriette de Bourbon-Conti (whose likeness is also reproduced in Plate ix), represents her as Hebe, the goddess of youth, seated in the clouds. Her dress is white, and a gray-blue drapery is thrown over her knees; a garland of flowers crosses her breast, and flowers are in her powdered hair. In her hand she holds a shell-like goblet, towards which the eagle of Jupiter descends with spread wings. In her other hand is a gilded glass ewer filled with nectar. The picture is now in the National Museum of Stockholm. It is signed "Nattier pinxit, 1744."

'LOUISE-HENRIETTE DE BOURBON-CONTI' PLATE IX

MADAME LOUISE-HENRIETTE DE BOURBON-CONTI, daughter of Louis Armand II., Duke of Bourbon and Prince of Conti, was married at the age of seventeen to the Duke of Chartres, afterwards Louis Philippe, Duke of Orleans, and was the mother of Philippe Egalité. She died in 1759, at the age of thirty-three, and we know little about her save that she was witty, sharp-tongued, and one of the most beautiful of the great ladies of Louis XV.'s court. The present likeness, now at Versailles, shows her in a white underdress draped with a blue scarf. Her complexion was dark and vivid, and her hair, when unpowdered, was brown.

'MADAME ADÉLAIDE OF FRANCE' PLATE X

THIS portrait, at Versailles, of Madame Adélaïde, third daughter of Louis XV., represents the princess in a dress of crimson-and-white shot silk covered with embroidered stars. She holds a shuttle and gold thread—"faisant de la frivoliti" the catalogue says. This may perhaps refer to the then fashionable occupation of "unraveling," which consisted in disentangling the gold and silver threads from trimmings, laces, epaulettes, and brocaded and embroidered stuffs. The gentlemen were expected to provide the materials for this popular pastime, and the ladies frequently derived goodly sums from the sale of the proceeds. Indeed, so much the rage did this "unraveling" become in the fashionable world of that period that we are told that a gentleman who entered a circle of ladies was in danger of losing "all his gold fringes and laces, nay, even his very coat," in the eagerness with which his decorations were torn from him.

A LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL PAINTINGS OF NATTIER, WITH THEIR PRESENT LOCATIONS

ENGLAND. BARNARD CASTLE, BOWES MUSEUM : Portrait of a Lady; A Lady as Diana -LONDON, COLLECTION OF ALFRED BEIT, EsQ: La Duchesse d'Orléans as Hebe —LONDON, WALLACE COLLECTION: Queen Marie Leczinska; A Prince of the House of France (in part by Tocqué); Portrait of a Lady; The Bath; The Countess of Dillières—SHEFFIELD, COLLECTION OF REGINALD VAILE, EsQ: The Countess of Neubourg and her Daughter—FRANCE. AMIENS MUSEUM: Portrait of Gresset; A Young Girl—BORDEAUX MUSEUM: A Daughter of Louis XV. (unfinished)— CHANTILLY, CONDÉ MUSEUM: Mlle. de Clermont (Plate III); Louise-Henriette de Bourbon-Conti as Hebe; La Princesse de Condé—DIJON MUSEUM: Queen Marie Leczinska—LIMOGES MUSEUM: Madame dePompadour—MARSEILLES MUSEUM: Madame de Châteauroux as 'Point du jour' —NANTES MUSEUM: 'La Camargo'; Portrait of a Lady —ORLEANS MUSEUM: La Princesse de Conti—PARIS, LOUVRE: The Magdalene; A Daughter of Louis XV. as a Vestal Virgin; Madame Adélaide; Mlle. de Lambesc and the Comte de Brionne; A Knight of Malta—PERPIGNON MUSEUM: Louis XV. —Tours MUSEUM: Perseus Showing the Head of Medusa at the Wedding of Phyneus — VALENCIENNES MUSEUM: Le Duc de Boufflers — VERSAILLES, PALACE: Queen Marie Leczinska (Plate II); Marie-Josephe de Saxe; Madame Adélaide; La Duchesse du Maine; Madame Adélaide Madame Henriette, Madame Élisabeth, Duchesse de Parme (Plate Iv), Madame Adelaide as Diana; Madame Henriette; Madame Sophie; Madame Louise (Plate vil); Madame Victoire as Hebe; Madame Henriette as Flora; Madame Victoire; L'Archduchesse d'Autriche; Madame Elisabeth in Hunting-costume; Le Duc de Bourgoyne; Madame Sophie as a Vestal Virgin; La Princesse de Tourenne; Madame Henriette; Madame Adélaide; Ma-dame Henriette; Madame Sophie; Madame Louise-Henriette de Bourbon-Conti (Plate Ix); Madame Henriette, Madame Sophie (Plate v); Mesdames Adélaide, Victoire, and Sophie, The little Infanta Isabella; Jean-Marc Nattier and his family—GERMANS'. DRESDEN, ROYAL GALLERY: Marshal Saxe—FRANKFORT, STADEL INSTITUTE: Portraits of Jean-Georges Leerse and his Wife—FRANKFORT, COLLECTION OP M. ALEXANDRE MANSKOPF: Two Portraits — MAYENCE MUSEUM: La Princesse de Talmont— SPAIN. MADRID, THE PRADO: A Prince of France; Two Portraits of Mlle. de Berry—SWEDEN. STOCKHOLM, NATIONAL MUSEUM: La Duchesse d'Orléans as Hebe (Plate viii); La Marquise de l' Opital; La Marquise de Broglie as a Sultana—STOCKHOLM, VON PLATEN COLLECTION: Madame de Flavacourt as ' Silence' ; La Duchesse de Châteauroux; La Princesse de Rohan-Soubise—UNITED STATES. BOSTON, ART MUSEUM: Portrait of a Lady CHICAGO, ART INSTITUE: The Duchess of Montmorency (loaned).

A LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL BOOKS AND MAGAZINE ARTICLES DEALING WITH NATTIER

ALEXANDRE, A. Histoire populaire de la peinture: école française. (Paris, 1893)-_ BELLIER DE LA CHAVIGNERIE, E., AND AUVRAY, L. Dictionnaire général des artistea de l'école française. (Paris, 1882-7)—BLANC, C. Histoire des peintres de toutes les écoles: école française. (Paris, 1865)—DAYOT, A. L'Image de la femme. (Paris, 1899).

DILKE, LADY. French Painters of the xviiith Century. (London,1899)—GÉLIS-DIDOT, P. La Peinture décorative en France, du xvie au xviiie siècle. (Paris, 1901)—GoNsE, L. Les Chefs-d'oeuvre des musées de France. (Paris; 1901)—GRUYER, F. A. La Peinture au Château de Chantilly. (Paris, 1898)—HÉDOUIN, P. Mosaïque. (Valenciennes, 1856)-KINGSLEY, R. G. A History of French Art. (London,1899)—LEJEUNE, T. Guide de l'amateur de tableaux. (Paris, 1864)— MARIETTE, J. P. Abecedario et autres notes in-édites. (Paris, 1857-8) — MERSON, O. La Peinture française au xviie et au xviiie siècle. (Paris, 1900) — MICHAUD, J. F. Biographie universelle. (Paris, 1843-55) - NOLHAC, P. DE, AND PÉRATÉ, A. Le Musée national de Versailles. (Paris, 1896)—PÉRATÉ, A. 'Madame Henriette de France par-Nattier' in Les Chefs-d'oeuvre: Peinture, sculpture, architecture. (Paris, 1898)—PINSET, R., AND D'AURIAC, J. Histoire du portrait en France (Paris, 1884)—TOCQUÉ,MADAME. ' Jean-Marc Nattier' in Mémoires inédits. (Paris, 1854)—VACHON, M. La Femme dans l'art. (Paris, 1893).

MAGAZINE ARTICLES

ART JOURNAL, 1901: The Wallace Collection; French Pictures (C. Phillips). 1902: Mr. Reginald Vaile's Collection of Eighteenth Century French Pictures (F. Rinder)—CHRONIQUE DES ARTS, 1899: Deux portraits de Nattier à l'Institut Stâdel à Frankfort (A. Valabrègue)—COSMOPOLITAN, 1897: A Royal Family (E. Lewis) — GAZETTE DES BEAUX-ARTS, 186o: Exposition de tableaux de l'école française (W. Bürger). 1894: Un Document sur Nattier (B. Prost). 1894: J.-M. Nattier (P. Mantz). 1895: Nattier, peintre des Mesdames, filles de Louis XV. (P. de Nolhac).