A new Nattier for Karlsruhe

6/7/26 - Acquisition - Karlsruhe, Staatliche Kunsthalle - Out of fashion, Nattier? If one is to believe current developments on the art market, the exact opposite is true, and the very recent acquisition by Versailles of a superb portrait of “Madame Infante” (see the news item of 29/6/26) has led us to think again about the very fine likeness of her sister (ill. 1), which once stood on the Galerie Aaron’s stand at the Salon du Dessin in 2025 (see the article). It can now be admired at the Staatliche Kunsthalle in Karlsruhe, which is gradually becoming something of a second repository for the French portraitist’s work, since it has succeeded in acquiring three pastels in a few years: first a presumed portrait of the Marquis de Marigny (see the news item of 15/11/18), then the two portraits of the Royer couple (see the news item of 6/9/21), which remain his probable masterpieces in this medium.

The fourth sheet by Nattier to join Karlsruhe is both alluring and surprising, since the artist is known above all as a painter, whereas its finished appearance proclaims its status as a ricordo of another likeness of this princess (ill. 2), deposited since 1952 in Niort, after having been recovered in Germany at the end of the Second World War. This composition, properly catalogued as MNR, is most likely one of the two pendants intended to adorn the bedchamber of Louis XV at the château of Choisy, the king’s favourite residence, now lost. Versailles preserves a replica, which has never left the château, as well as this painting in which her sister Madame Henriette is depicted as Flora and which reprises a work of 1742 intended for the queen’s apartment. The two paintings destined for Choisy were exhibited at the…