Portrait of Mathilde de Canisy, marquise d'Antin

Portrait of Mathilde de Canisy, marquise d'Antin is a 1738 oil on canvas portrait by Jean-Marc Nattier, produced ten years before he became official painter to the French royal family.[1] It is now in the musée Jacquemart-André in Paris.[2] Interestingly, although this painting is now one of the most popular works in the Jacquemart-André Collection, no attention was paid to it at the time and it barely attracted any comments when it was first presented at the 1738 Salon.[3]

It shows its subject Marie-François-Renée (known as Mathilde) de Carbonnel-Canisy (1725-1796) aged 14, the only daughter of René-Anne de Carbonnel, comte de Canisy (1683-1728). She had been orphaned aged three, raised by her paternal grandmother Charlotte de La Paluelle, and married to Antoine François de Pardaillan de Gondrin, marquis d'Antin aged twelve.[4] It is an excellent example of Nattier’s work and sense of composition. The inversely curving arms form a diagonal with the garland of flowers arranged in a sling that crosses over the bust. Nattier rendered the drapery and silks to great effect, introducing delicacy, elegance, and sense of lightness to a genre that was traditionally majestic—the court portrait.[5]