Portrait of a Woman as Diana

This 1752 Portrait of a Woman as Diana by Jean-Marc Nattier is a mature example of the mythological portrait format that defined his career and shaped French Rococo portraiture for half a century. The Diana conceit — presenting a real woman in the guise of the virginal huntress — was popular precisely because it allowed the painter to present female beauty openly while the mythological alibi preserved aristocratic dignity. By 1752 Nattier had been painting such works for nearly thirty years, and the formula is executed with effortless assurance. The sitter, unidentified, wears the crescent moon attribute and carries the bow that identify Diana, set against a woodland background that frames her as part of the natural world she rules. The Cleveland variant complements other Nattier Dianas in major American collections, documenting the formula's wide circulation.

Nattier's handling of the silver-grey drapery against the forest green of the background is characteristically refined, the cool tonality extending to the sitter's pearl-like complexion. Smooth, seamless blending in the flesh contrasts with the more freely painted foliage, and the crescent moon is rendered with precise metallic delicacy.