Plate LXXIII.
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LOUISE-HENRIETTE DE BOURBON CONTI. J. M. Nattier. |
A FRIEND OF THE CONDÉS. Largillière. |
Largillière resided for many years in England and studied for some time under Sir Peter Lely. On his return to Paris he was taken up by Charles Le Brun. His style belongs as much to the seventeenth as to the eighteenth century. Elegance and luxury, and a touch of serenity prevail in all his portraits. Mariette was greatly struck by his personal vigour and tells us that he went on working even up to his eighty-sixth year. Although too often over-exuberant he generally succeeded in imparting to his patrons great liveliness of aspect, and they live still, clad in their most sumptuous apparel. Such is the portrait of the elegant “Unknown”[134] at Chantilly, once in the Collection at the Palais Bourbon; from which circumstance we may suppose that the sitter was some intimate friend of the Condé family.
By Jean Marc Nattier there is at Chantilly a life-size portrait of Mademoiselle Nantes, daughter of Louis XIV by Madame de Montespan, and wife of the Duc de Bourbon, grandson of the Grand Condé. Her daughter Louise Henriette, who married the Prince de Bourbon Conti, was also painted by Nattier[135]; and by the same artist—one of his best works—is the above-mentioned portrait of Charlotte Elizabeth Soubise,[136] the young wife of Louis Joseph, Prince de Condé, represented plucking carnations in the gardens at Chantilly.