C. 1750s French School Pastel Portrait of a Lady in Blue

Description

An eighteenth-century, c. 1750 French school - possibly the entourage of Nattier - oval pastel portrait of a woman in … more An eighteenth-century, c. 1750 French school - possibly the entourage of Nattier - oval pastel portrait of a woman in blue with flowers in her hair and at the brooch of her bodice. Pastel on paper, which has been securely glued to a backing and reframed in watered silk and a gold wood frame (the framing was professionally done in the last 20 years). Research shows that some pastels in this style were done in the nineteenth century, and there is the possibility that this is such a copy -- but after hours of scouring the pastels, paintings, and portraits of Nattier, Boucher, etc., as well as lesser-known pastel portraitists, I haven't found anything on which this could have been based. From everything I can gather, this seems to be an original, but I cannot authenticate it as such. The portrait measures 24.5" by 20"; the frame, 34" by 29.25". less