Madame Marsollier and Her Daughter

Madame Marsollier and Her Daughter was executed by Jean-Marc Nattier in 1749 as an oil on canvas. The portrait remained in private hands and at one point belonged to the collection of Reginald Vaile before being acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it is now held. The available documentation does not provide a specific accession number, a detailed chain of earlier ownership, or any exhibition history for the work.

Painted in 1749 by Jean-Marc Nattier, Madame Marsollier and Her Daughter is a portrait that exemplifies the artist's mastery of the French Rococo style during the mid-eighteenth century. The work depicts Madame Marsollier and her young daughter in an intimate interior setting. The mother, seated on a chair, wears a white and blue dress and holds a small plant in her right hand, a detail often used in portraiture to symbolize virtue or domesticity.

Beside her, the daughter, draped in a yellow shawl over a white dress, is engaged in the act of brushing her hair. The composition is anchored by a table covered with a lace cloth and a casket, elements that contribute to the scene's sense of refined domesticity. Nattier, renowned for his idealized portraits of the French court, applies his characteristic soft brushwork and delicate color palette here to capture the elegance and tenderness of the maternal bond.

This piece reflects the artist's ability to blend formal portraiture with genre-like intimacy, securing his reputation as a leading portraitist of the era.