Marie Françoise de La Cropte de St. Abre, Marquise d'Argence (born 1714)

Jean Marc Nattier

1744 · Oil on canvas · European Paintings

The marquise's name and the date are inscribed on the stretcher. In 1744, the year she sat for Nattier, she was married in Paris to François Achard Joumard Tison d'Argence (1719–1781), who descended from several families of great antiquity in Angoulême and Périgueux. In this formal, frontal portrait the young sitter wears a pointed bodice trimmed with lace and pearls. An extravagant length of taffeta-like fabric is knotted at her breast. The trees, some with leafless branches, are unusual for a portrait in this relatively small format.

Artist

Jean Marc Nattier

Date

1744

Medium

Oil on canvas

Department

European Paintings

Credit line

Gift of Jessie Woolworth Donahue, 1958