Jean-Marc Nattier Portrait of a Gentleman dressed in black

Jean-Marc Nattier
Paris 1685 - 1766
Portrait of a Gentleman dressed in black

Oil on canvas
Signed and dated toward centre right Nattier. p. x. 1727
146,4 x 114 cm ; 57⅝ by 44⅞ in.

Catalogue Note:
Admitted to the Académie in 1718, Nattier was appointed professor there in 1752. A renowned draughtsman and portraitist, he distinguished himself particularly through his depictions of women from the nobility, portrayed surrounded by the attributes of Hebe (as in our Portrait of Louise-Henriette de Bourbon-Conti, Duchess of Chartres as Hebe, see lot 36), Diana or Venus.

Following the tradition of the classical portrait established by such great masters as Largillierre, Rigaud and de Troy, Nattier here depicts his sitter in an elegant pose. Seated with a dignified bearing, he looks confidently at the viewer. With one elbow delicately resting on a Louis XV console table, the sitter stands before an antique-style column—elements that attest to his social standing and wealth.

As usual in Nattier’s work, particular care is devoted to the sitter’s clothing and hairstyle: delicate brushstrokes emphasize the curls of the wig, while the velvety texture of the black garment is rendered with remarkable skill. The sitter’s face, whose features are accentuated by the side lighting, is tinged with a delicate rosy hue, enlivening the range of light browns against which he is set.

The elegance of the sitter has captivated the most discerning collectors over the centuries, from the Duke of Parma and the Duke of Ganay, before the portrait adorned the walls of the Château de Chiseuil in Digoin in the early twentieth century.

Provenance:
Collection Duke de Parme;

Collection Count de Ganay;

Collection Eugène Fischhof, Château de Chiseuil, Digouin, Saône-et-Loire, in 1913;

His sale, Me Lair-Dubreuil, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 14 June 1913, lot 35;

Jean Arnold Seligmann, in 1929;

To whom confiscated by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR, inv. no. Sel. 45), 1940;

Transferred in France, 18 October 1945, and restituted to the Seligmann family;

Private collection, Switzerland;

Anonymous sale, Ader Picard Tajan, Hôtel George V, Paris, 23 June 1976, lot 44;

Anonymous sale, Sotheby's, Monaco, 16-17 June 1989, lot 383;

Collection Dino Fabri, Switzerland;

Anonymous sale, Tajan, Paris, 26 June 2008, lot 86;

With Jean-Francois Heim, Paris, 2009;

With Eric Coatalem, Paris, 2015.

Literature:
Sedelmeyer Gallery, 100 paintings by Old Masters, Paris, 1913, pp. 114-15, no. 74;

X. Salmon, Jean-Marc Nattier, cat. exh., Versailles, 1999-2000, p. 25, note 22.