Portrait of a Lady as a Vestal Virgin
Artist
Jean-Marc Nattier
French, 1685–1766
Date1759
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions45 1/2 x 53 1/2 in. (115.6 x 135.9 cm)
Frame: 65 x 70 1/4 in. (165.1 x 178.4 cm)
Frame: 65 x 70 1/4 in. (165.1 x 178.4 cm)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LinePurchased with funds from the State of North Carolina
Object number52.9.130
On View
On viewProvenanceSalon 1759 [1]; M. et Mme. Dellezenne, Paris (sale, Paris, Narjot, 19 May 1818, lot 1, “Description des portraits des quatre Dames de France, peintes d’après nature par Nattier, sous les emblems des quatre Vertus Cardinales…Ces quatre tableaux, de grandeur naturelle jusqu’a mi-jambes, sont recommandables par la plus exact ressemblance…”, [height] 4 pieds; [length]. 5 pieds) [2]; Fleury-Hérard, Paris (sale, Paris, Drouot, 29 February 1872, lot 4, as “Une Vestale, 1m 27 cm x 1m 40 cm”) [3]; Baron [Auguste? (d. 1930)] Becker-Rémy, Brussels; Baron Gustave Samuel James de Rothschild (1829–1911), Paris, by 1905 [4]; bequest 1911 to his daughter; Zoë Lucie Betty de Rothschild (1863–1916), Baroness Lambert, Brussels and New York [5]; Wildenstein Gallery, New York and Paris; sold to NCMA, 1952.
[1] Livret, no. 14: “une vestale, tableau de quatre pieds et demi de largeur, sur quatre pieds de hauteur.”
[2] One of four paintings sold as lot 1,
[3] According to Xavier Salmon, Jean-Marc Nattier, 1685–1766 (exh. cat. Musée national des chateaux de Versailles et de Trianon), 1999, cat. no. 84, p. 286. The painting was sold as one of four allegorical portraits executed by Nattier between 1737 and 1759. According to the introduction to the sale catalogue, “D’après une tradition, elles décorient un des appartements du château de Bellevue, construit par madame de Pompadour et habité ensuite par Mesdames, filles de Louis XV…” The other paintings are 1) La Justice, 1737, 2) La Prudence, 1739, 3) La Force, 1743. The first two paintings are 1m 37cm x 1m 60 cm. The second, including Une Vestale, measure 1m 27cm x 1m 40 cm.
[4] Pierre de Nolhac, Nattier, pientre de la cour de Louis XV, Paris, 1905, pp. 124–125, 159.
[5] Gustave de Rothschild’s eldest daughter, known as Lucie, married Baron Léon Lambert (1851–1919) in 1882. Following his death the title passed to their son Henri (1887–1933), who was survived by two sons, Léon, (1928–1987) and Philippe (b. 1930). It is unknown who inherited this painting, which was probably sold privately. Wooded Landscape with Watermill by Meindert Hobbema [now Minneapolis Institute of Arts] was sold in New York at Parke-Bernet, 8 May 1941, lot 35, as from “Collection of Baron Gustave de Rothschild, Paris; Collection of Baron Lambert, Brussels.”
[1] Livret, no. 14: “une vestale, tableau de quatre pieds et demi de largeur, sur quatre pieds de hauteur.”
[2] One of four paintings sold as lot 1,
[3] According to Xavier Salmon, Jean-Marc Nattier, 1685–1766 (exh. cat. Musée national des chateaux de Versailles et de Trianon), 1999, cat. no. 84, p. 286. The painting was sold as one of four allegorical portraits executed by Nattier between 1737 and 1759. According to the introduction to the sale catalogue, “D’après une tradition, elles décorient un des appartements du château de Bellevue, construit par madame de Pompadour et habité ensuite par Mesdames, filles de Louis XV…” The other paintings are 1) La Justice, 1737, 2) La Prudence, 1739, 3) La Force, 1743. The first two paintings are 1m 37cm x 1m 60 cm. The second, including Une Vestale, measure 1m 27cm x 1m 40 cm.
[4] Pierre de Nolhac, Nattier, pientre de la cour de Louis XV, Paris, 1905, pp. 124–125, 159.
[5] Gustave de Rothschild’s eldest daughter, known as Lucie, married Baron Léon Lambert (1851–1919) in 1882. Following his death the title passed to their son Henri (1887–1933), who was survived by two sons, Léon, (1928–1987) and Philippe (b. 1930). It is unknown who inherited this painting, which was probably sold privately. Wooded Landscape with Watermill by Meindert Hobbema [now Minneapolis Institute of Arts] was sold in New York at Parke-Bernet, 8 May 1941, lot 35, as from “Collection of Baron Gustave de Rothschild, Paris; Collection of Baron Lambert, Brussels.”
Published ReferencesPierre de Nolhac, J.-M. Nattier, peintre de la cour de Louis XV (Paris: Goupil; Manzi, Joyant, successeurs, 1905), 159, 1759 no. 2, as "Une Vestale."
Pierre de Nolhac, J.-M. Nattier, peintre de la cour de Louis XV (Paris: Goupil, 1910), 252, 1759 no. 2, as "Une Vestale."
Art News (April 1956), 54, illus. (color).
W. R. Valentiner, Catalogue of Paintings: Including Three Sets of Tapestries (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1956), no. 158 (as Madame de Vintimille), illus. (b-w).
"Picture of the Month," North Carolina Museum of Art Calendar of Art Events 3, no. 1 (October 1959), discussed and illus. (b-w) unnumbered page.
North Carolina Museum of Art Calendar of Art Events 4, no. 1 (September 1960), illus. (b-w) unnumbered page.
Charles W. Stanford, Masterpieces in the North Carolina Museum of Art (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1966), no. 11 (as Madame de Vintimille), illus. (b-w).
Edgar Peters Bowron, ed., Introduction to the Collections (Chapel Hill: published for the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, by The University of North Carolina Press, 1983), illus. (b-w) 150.
Introduction to the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1992), illus. (b-w) 131
Kathleen Nicholson, "The ideology of feminine 'virtue': the vestal virgin in French eighteenth-century allegorical portraiture," in Portraiture: Facing the Subject, ed. by Joanna Woodall (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 1997), 62, 63, 71, illus. 63.
Joseph P. Covington, entry for Portrait of a Lady as a Vestal Virgin, in North Carolina Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, Rebecca Martin Nagy, ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1998), 169,173, illus. (color) 173.
Phillipe Renard, Jean-Marc Nattier (Saint-Remy-en-l'Eau: Editions Monelle Hayot, 1999), illus. (b-w) 136.
Xavier Salmon, Jean-Marc Nattier (1685-1766) (exhibition catalogue) (Versailles: Musée National du Château de Versailles, France, 2000), cat. no. 84, illus. (color) 287.
Art Taylor, "Museum Loans," Preview: The Magazine of the North Carolina Museum of Art (March/April 2002), mentioned 7, illus. (color).
Andria Derstine, "Recent Research on Jean-Marc Nattier's 'Portrait of a Woman as a Vestal Virgin'," Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Art 83, no. 1/4 (2009), mentioned 29-30, illus. (color) 29, fig. 12.
Roger Benjamin, et al, Renoir in the 20th Century (exhibition catalogue) (Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz, 2009), 63, illus. (color) 62, fig. 24 (catalogue only, not in exhibition).
Joseph P. Covington, entry for Portrait of a Lady as a Vestal Virgin, in North Carolina Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 2010), 354, illus. (color) 355.
Marlen Schneider, Belle comme Vénus: Le portrait historié entre Grand Siècle et Lumières (Paris: Éditions de la maison des sciences de l’homme, 2020), 255–256, illus. (b-w) 255, fig. 81, and (color detail) cover.
Exhibition HistoryParis Salon, 1759, no. 14 (as Une Vestale).
New Orleans, LA, Isaac Delgado Museum of Art, A Loan Exhibition of Masterpieces of French Painting through Five Centuries," 1953-54, no. 28.
Washington, DC, National Gallery of Art, to be displayed with the permanent collection, February, 1994-April, 1995.
Musée National du Château de Versailles, France, "Jean-Marc Nattier (1685-1766)," October 25, 1999-January 30, 2000, cat. no. 84, illus. (color) 287.
Wilmington, NC, Louise Wells Cameron Art Museum, "Eighteenth Century Paintings and Sculptures from the North Carolina Museum of Art," April 21, 2002 - March 30, 2003
Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," October 7, 2022–present.
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