NATTIER, JEAN MARC (1685-1766), French painter, was born in Paris in 1685, the son of Marc Nattier, a portrait painter, and of Marie Courtois, a miniaturist. He received his first instruction from his father, and took the first prize at the Paris Academy at the age of fifteen. He refused to study at the French Academy in Rome, and in 1715 went to Amsterdam, where Peter the Great was then staying. There he painted por traits of the tsar and the empress Catherine, but declined an offer to go to Russia. Between 1715 and 172o he painted the "Battle of Pultawa," for Peter the Great, and the "Petrification of Phineus and of his Companions," which led to his election to the Academy. The financial collapse of 172o caused by the schemes of Law all but ruined Nattier, who was obliged to turn to portraiture. He became the painter of the artificial ladies of Louis XV.'s court. The most notable examples of his straight forward portraiture are the "Marie Leszczinska" at the Dijon Museum, and a group of the artist surrounded by his family, dated 173o. He died in Paris in 1766.
Among his pictures are the "Magdalen" at the Louvre ; "La Camargo" and "A Lady of the Court of Louis XV'." at Nantes ; the "Head of a Young Girl" at Orleans and "Mme. de Pompadour" at Marseilles. The Versailles Museum owns an important group of two ladies, and the Dresden Gallery a portrait of the "Marechal de Saxe." In the Wallace collection are "The Comtesse de Dillieres," "The Bath (Mdlle. de Clermont) ," "Portrait of a Lady in Blue," "Marie Leszc zinska" and "A Prince of the House of France." Nattier's works have been engraved by Leroy, Tardieu, Lepicie, Audran, and other noted craftsmen.