MASP

At the age of 15, Nattier was already an awardwinning artist who received many private commissions. In 1718, after portraying Catherine the Great (1729-1796), Empress of Russia, he turned down her invitation to stay in her country as a member of the St. Petersburg court. He was then accepted as a painter of historic themes at the Académie Royale de Paris. Nattier was one of the greatest portrait artists of his generation, characterized by decorative exaggeration and the renewal of the image of the woman, in light of her growing importance in 18th-century French intellectual and cultural life. His portraits reiterate the power of the nobility over the plebeians through symbolism and the ostentation of wealth, evidenced by fabrics such as colorful satin and velvet, which were very expensive and worn to demarcate social roles. MASP’s paintings bring together four of the daughters of King Louis XV. Each one of them is associated to one of the four elements, identified by the attributes of the globe, the stove, the peacock and the amphora. The eldest, Louise-Elisabeth, is associated with the earth; Anne-Henriette, with fire; Marie-Adélaïde, with air; Marie-Louise-Thérèse-Victoire, with water. The works decorated a room at the Palace of Versailles, the residence of the French court at that time.

— MASP Curatorial Team, 2017

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The Anne-Henriette’s portrait is the only one from the series – Princess Louise-Elisabeth of France, The Earth; Princess Anne-Henriette of France, The Fire; Princess Marie-Adélaïde of France, The Air; and Princess Marie-Louise-Thérèse-Victoire of France, The Water – in which the model is not depicted outdoors. Any hint of a parallel between fire as element and the equally ancient notion of the fiery character is annulled by the sacralization of the figure, located in a temple and converted into a graceful Vestal, acolyte of Vesta, the image seen in the background. Three elements reiterate this allegorical construction, the veil covering Madame Anne-Henriette’s head, the fine edition of the rare Histoire des Vestales – as yet lacking full identification –, and the bronze burner, deliciously rocaille in style, with the hearth fire. The position of the hand on the chin may contribute to an image combining gracefulness with a meditative air very suited to the allusion to the sacred. The verses in the engraving by Tardieu definitely illustrate this allegorical operation: “Ma Sphère est au plus haut des Cieux / La Terre me reçut comme un don precieux/ L’atrait d’une force divine / Me rappelle a mon origine”. The vogue of Vestal portraits had been started by Jean Raoux, a painter who had preceded Nattier in the genre of allegorical-mythological portraits and seems to have been linked to opposition to Regency corruption. Alluding to this connotation, Diderot wrote: “Une Vestale est un être en même temps historique, poétique et moral”. The princess reappears as a Vestal in at least one other Nattier (Louvre, Le Caze Collection), known as Fille de Louis XV en Vestale, now at the Musée de Pau in deposit. Madame Henriette, as she was known, died one year after her portrait was painted. Madame Marie-Adélaïde was named after her grandmother, Marie-Adélaïde de Savoie, Louis XV’s mother. As the allegorical figure of Air, she is shown with the blue mantle of the celestial orb. In her role as Juno she roams the skies in her triumphal chariot, drawn by peacocks. This is the only figure executed in contraposto, perhaps as an allusion to the movements of the winds, which in any case serves to bring out the extraordinary gracefulness of her arm, set apart from her body, right to her fingertip. Under the engraving by Beauvarlet, one can read: “Sur moy tous les yeaux sont ouverts, / Tout ce qui respire m’encense; / J’aime a verser dans l’Univers / Une salutaire influence”. The most evident iconographic allusion is to the fluvial deities, seen reclining against an urn in ancient and Renaissance iconography. The text in Gaillard’s engraving is: “Sur d’éternelles lois je mesure ma course / Avec plus de lenteur ou de rapidité; / Toujours avec la pureté / Que l’on admire dans ma source”.

— Unknown authorship, 1998

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