Jean-Marc Nattier: The Spring (La Source)

The Spring (La Source), Jean-Marc Nattier, 1738, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Paris, 1738. In Jean-Marc Nattier’s studio, a young woman takes her pose. For a few hours, she is a water nymph.

A grace suspended in light

The figure emerges from a grey-brown background, almost weightless. Her white silk chemise slips from her shoulder, light as a breath. The painter works in fluid, almost aerial strokes. The complexion is pearlescent, the cheeks tinged with a powdery softness. Look at her hand: it barely grazes an antique urn adorned with meander motifs, from which water flows. The green reeds to the left anchor the scene in an imagined aquatic setting. Light caresses the neck, the shoulder, the forearms — everything converges toward that calm face, turned slightly, meeting your gaze with quiet assurance.

A nymph for the art market

In the eighteenth century, mythology offered painters a precious freedom. Depicting a woman as a nymph or antique water source allowed them to unite sensuality with classical culture. Nattier excelled at this. The identity of the model remains mysterious: long attributed to Louise Henriette de Bourbon-Conti, this attribution is now disputed. The free brushwork and seductive composition suggest a work destined for the private market — painted to please, to circulate, to captivate a discerning collector.

Jean-Marc Nattier (1685–1766)

Nattier established himself as the favourite portraitist of the ladies of Louis XV’s court. He invented a hybrid genre: the portrait as goddess or allegory. His Rococo painting unites formal elegance with luminous sensitivity. La Source is a perfect illustration of both.