Jean-Marc Nattier (1685 Paris - 1766 ibid.) Circumference Bust portrait of a young noble lady in blue Oval portrait of the lady in a white, delicate dress, the blue silk cloak on her left shoulder held by a precious, double-row pearl necklace, her head almost en face, slightly inclined, with a gentle gaze towards the viewer. With subtle, soft lighting, the artist succeeds in modelling her body and rendering the nuances of the flesh tones from ivory white to the delicate red of her cheeks and lips. The style, composition, manner of depicting the figure and the rendering and arrangement of the clothing reveal obvious parallels to numerous female portraits by Nattier. After Nicolas de Largillière (1656 - 1746), Nattier became the most important French gallant portrait painter of the Rococo period, exhibiting regularly at the Salon from 1737 to 1763. He became the official portraitist of the d'Orléans family and in 1748 portrait painter at the court of Louis XV; at the height of his career he painted in particular the ladies of Louis XV's court society in all their beauty, sometimes as allegorical portraits such as the mistress of Louis XV, Madame de Pompadour as Diana (1746) Among those portrayed by Nattier were the eight daughters of King Louis XV, whose portraits were exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1758 and are now in the Palace of Versailles. Oil on canvas, doubled; 72 cm x 59 cm, in oval frame. Frame. Provenance: Dissolution of an important German private collection - Part II. Attributed to the circle of Jean-Marc Nattier (1685 - 1766). Oil on canvas, relined.