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)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the State of North Carolina

Object number52.9.130

On View

On view

Collections

ProvenanceSalon 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,” sold for 13,700 F) [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.”