NATTIER, Jean-Marc
(b. 1685, Paris, d. 1766, Paris)

Henriette of France as Flora

1742
Oil on canvas, 94,5 x 128,5 cm
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

In 1742 the Queen of France, Maria Leczinska, wife of Louis XV, impressed by Nattier's remarkable talent in the execution of portraits, requested that the artist paint her first daughter Henrietta (1727-1752). The original version is still at Versailles, as is the replica executed in 1745 for the castle of Choisy. According to the most reliable reconstructions the canvas of Florence, signed and dated lower right 'Nattier pinxit 1742', is probably a replica executed specially for the Spanish Infanta Luisa Elisabetta, Henrietta's twin sister, and sent to Madrid in 1746 together with its pendant representing Marie Adelaide of France as Diana. The two paintings were probably brought to Parma some years later with the settlement of the Infanta in the Emilian city, and remained on display in the Ducal Palace until the unification of Italy, at which time they were moved to Florence.

The portrait shows Nattier's ability to construct an image that is something between 'naif' and 'flatterie'. The transposition into the mythological figure, the perfect turning of the body and the regularity of the brushstrokes do not suppress the characterization and recognizability of the face; the whole is rendered with a polished, silken pictorial style drawn from studies on Lebrun and Rubens.