The J. Paul Getty Museum

Portrait of Madame Bonnier de la Mosson as Diana (Constance-Gabrielle-Magdeleine du Monciel de Lauraille)

Object Details

Title:

Portrait of Madame Bonnier de la Mosson as Diana (Constance-Gabrielle-Magdeleine du Monciel de Lauraille)

Artist/Maker:

Jean-Marc Nattier (French, 1685 - 1766)

Culture:

French

Place:

Paris, France (Place Created)

Date:

1742

Medium:

Oil on canvas

Object Number:

77.PA.87

Dimensions:

129.5 × 96.8 cm (51 × 38 1/8 in.)

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Object Description

Madame Bonnier de la Mosson, a member of Parisian society whose literary salon was a popular meeting place for the most noted people of her day, appears as Diana, goddess of the moon, the forest, and the hunt. Jean-Marc Nattier depicted her seated in front of a dramatic sky and barren landscape, delicately holding a bow and arrow, wearing a revealing white chemise low on her shoulders, and wrapped in an exotic leopard skin.

In eighteenth-century France it was fashionable for aristocratic women to have their likenesses made in the guise of mythological or historical roles. Nattier, one of the leading portraitists of his day, specialized in these flattering allegorical portraits. During his career, he painted portraits of most of the circle of Louis XV and Madame de Pompadour in either traditional or allegorical guise.

Provenance
Provenance
1742 - probably 1744

Baron Joseph Bonnier de la Mosson, 1702 - 1744 (Paris, France)

by 1905 - 1908

Dr. Alfred Debatz, 1833 - 1908 (Reims, France)

1908

S. Guiraud (Paris, France), sold to M. Knoedler & Co., November 1908.
Source: GRI, M. Knoedler & Co. records, stock book 5, p. 164, no. 11711.

1908 - 1911

M. Knoedler & Co. (New York), founded 1846, dissolved 2011 (London, England; New York, New York; Paris, France), sold to Henry Edwards Huntington, January 1911.
Source: GRI, M. Knoedler & Co. records, sales book 9, p. 287, no. 11711.

1911 - 1918

Henry Edwards Huntington, 1850 - 1927 (New York, New York; San Marino, Califonia), sold to Duveen Brothers, Inc., 1918.
Source: JPGM Paintings Department, curatorial file, letter from Valerie Franco to Amy Walsh, August 16, 1982.

1918 -

Duveen Brothers, Inc. (London, England; New York, New York)

-

N. E. Tamoaco (Cairo, Egypt)

by 1929 - 1936

Edward Julius Berwind, 1848 - 1936 (New York, New York; Newport, Rhode Island), retained by his sister, Julia A. Berwind, 1936.

1936 - possibly 1939

Julia A. Berwind, 1866 - 1961 (Newport, Rhode Island), after protracted litigation, by inheritance from Edward Julius Berwind to his niece, Margaret Dunlap Behn, possibly 1939.

possibly 1939 - 1977

Margaret Dunlap Behn, 1891 - 1977 (New York, New York) [sold, Behn sale, Christie's, New York, June 15, 1977, lot 63, to Newhouse Galleries.]

1977

Newhouse Galleries (New York, New York), sold to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1977.

Exhibitions
Exhibitions
1764 Salon (1764)
  • Salon, Palais du Louvre (Paris), 1764
Masterpieces of Art (European Paintings and Sculpture from 1300-1800) (May to October, 1939)
  • New York World's Fair (Queens), May to October 1939
Jean-Marc Nattier (1685-1766) (October 25, 1999 to January 30, 2000)
  • Musée national des Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon (Versailles), October 25, 1999 to January 30, 2000
Paris: Life & Luxury (April 26, 2011 to January 2, 2012)
  • The J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center (Los Angeles), April 26 to August 7, 2011
  • Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, September 18, 2011 to January 2, 2012
Bibliography
Bibliography

Reydellet, Jean Baptiste. Explication des peintures, sculptures, et autres ouvrages de messieurs de l'Académie royale (Paris: Jacques Collombat, 1742), p. 15, no. 64.

Lady Dilke (Emilia Francis Strong Dilke). French Painters of the XVIIIth Century (London: G. Bell and Sons, 1899), p. 205.

Nolhac, Pierre de. J.M. Nattier, peintre de la cour de Louis XV (Paris: Goupil et Cie, 1905), pp. 106, 156.

"Notice necrologique: Debats (Alfred)." Almanach annuaire de la Marne et de l'Aisne (1909), pp. 462-63.

Nolhac, Pierre de. Nattier, peintre de la cour de Louis XV. Rev. ed. (Paris: Goupil et Cie, 1910), pp. 83, 170, 225, 249, ill.

Nolhac, Pierre de. "Deux portraits inédits par Nattier." Les Arts, no. 97 (January 1910), pp. 2-3, ill.

The Masterpieces of Nattier. Rev. ed. (London: Gowan's Art Books, 1920), p. 54, ill.

Nolhac, Pierre de. Nattier, peintre de la cour de Louis XV (Paris: Henri Floury, 1925), pp. 101, 190, 248, ill.

Singleton, Esther. Old World Masters in New World Collections (New York: Macmillan, 1929), pp. 285-88, ill.

Dimier, Louis. Les peintres français du XVIIIme siècle. 2 vols. (Paris: G. van Oest, 1930), vol. 2, pp. 111, 123, no. 58.

McCall, George Henry, and William R. Valentiner, eds. Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture from 1300-1800, exh. cat. (New York: World's Fair, with Masterpieces of Art, 1939), p. 127, no. 262.

Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian (Oxford: Phaidon, 1977), p. 309.

Christie, Manson, and Woods, New York. Important Paintings by Old Masters. June 15, 1977, pp. 70-71, lot 63, ill.

Fredericksen, Burton B., Jiří Frel, and Gillian Wilson. Guidebook: The J. Paul Getty Museum. 4th ed. Sandra Morgan, ed. (Malibu: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1978), p. 110.

Fredericksen, Burton B. Masterpieces of Painting in the J. Paul Getty Museum (Malibu: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1980), unpaginated, no. 45, ill.

Fredericksen, Burton B., Jiří Frel, and Gillian Wilson. The J. Paul Getty Museum Guidebook. 5th ed. (Malibu: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1980), p. 81, ill.

Roland Michel, Marianne. Lajoüe et l'art rocaille ( Neuilly-sur-Seine: Arthena, 1984), p. 42.

Coubés, Jean. Deux châteaux des campagnes Montpelliéraines: Château de la Mosson, Château d'O (Montpellier: Archives départementales de l'Héraut, 1988), p. 17, ill.

Jaffé, David. Summary Catalogue of European Paintings in the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1997), p. 91, ill.

Renard, Philippe. Jean-Marc Nattier (1685-1766): Un artiste parisien à la cour de Louis XV (Saint-Rémy-en-l'Eau: Editions Monelle Hayot, 1999), pp. 72, 177, 215.

Salmon, Xavier. Jean-Marc Nattier (1685-1766), exh. cat. (Versailles: Réunion des musées nationaux, 1999), pp. 151-53, no. 35, ill.

Conisbee, Philip, et al. French Paintings of the Fifteenth through the Eighteenth Century (Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, with Princeton University Press, 2009), p. 340, fig. 6, under no. 73, entry by Joseph Baillio.