Portrait of Infante Isabelle de Bourbon-Parme (1741–1763)
Artistafter
Jean-Marc Nattier
(French, 1685 – 1766)
Datec.1855
MediumPastel on paper
DimensionsImage: 20 x 18 in. (50.8 x 45.7 cm)
ClassificationsDrawings
Credit LineGift of Mrs. M. Catherine Wilman, in memory of Donald Grant Wilman, 1978
Object numberSN969
The eighteenth-century concept of childhood was quite different from how it is understood today. Portraits of aristocratic or noble youth were intended to reinforce dynastic lineage and therefore portray the children as “miniature” adults.
Although pastel, composed of dry pigment, a filler, and a binder, is an extremely fragile medium necessitating as little movement as possible, it has a number of benefits for the artist. It is both line and color laid down at the same time and can be blended into soft color variations. Pastel is easily erased so that the image can be quickly altered, and it enables a wide variety of texture from the matte finish of velvet to the luminosity of flesh.
On View
Not on view
Maurice Quentin de La Tour
c. 1855
