Jean-Denis Lempereur II (1701-1779), Paris;
His sale, Paris, Chariot, May 24-June 28, 1773, lot 88;
Pierre-Louis-Paul Randon de Boisset (1708-1776), Paris;
His sale, Paris, Pierre Remy, February 27-March 27, 1777, lot 185;
Private collection, France;
With Emmanuel Moatti, Paris, by whom sold in March 2004 to
the present owner.

This painting will be included in Jean-Patrice Marandel's forthcoming catalogue raisonné on the wor🌳ks of Ch🤪arles-Joseph Natoire. 

Charles-Jospeh Natoire received his first training from his father, an architect and sculptor in Nîmes. He went to Paris in 1717 to continue his studies, working first with Galoche and then with Lemoyne. He won the Grand Prix de Rome in 1721 for his Sacrifice of Manoah, enabling him to stay at the French Academy of Rome from 1723 to 1729. The director, Nicolas Vleughels, was impressed by Natoire's talent and had him copy works by Veronese and Pietro da Cortona. Natoire was awarded the first prize of the Academia di San Luca in 1725 for his drawing of Moses Descending from Mount Sinai.

Not long after his return to France, Natoire was made agrée in the Academie in September 1730 as a history painter. In 1731, he painted two works devoted to the history of of Clovis (Musée de Troy) for Philibert Ory, the newly appointed Directeur des Bâtiments, who was trying to revive interest in subjects taken from French history. Even before being admitted by the Academy in December 1734, Natoire received a royal commission for allegorical subjects for the room of the Queen at Versailles. Boucher was received into the academy for the same session and both artists received the status of professor in 1735. Boucher and Natoire had the same styles and conducted a friendly rivalry, collaborationg on a number of major decorative schemes at royal and aristocratic residences. Most notable was the Hotel de Soubise, in which the Histoire de Psyché, painted by Natoire in the Salon Oval between 1737 and 1739, represents the epitome of the rococo interior in its architecture, paneling and painting. Natoire's decorative skills were also displayed in drawing for the Gobelins and Beauvais tapestry maunfacturers. His Histoire de Don Quichotte, for Beauvais, is particularly distinguished.

Natoire exhibited frequently at the Salons, primarly  with mythological subjects, but also on occasion with a portrait such as his 1749 likeness of the Dauphin. In 1751, he was appointed director of the Academy of France at Rome replacing Jean-François de Troy. This was a great honor and for a short time the artist was very highly regarded in France. In 1753, for example, the Marquis of Marigny, requested a nude subject by Natoire to go with paintings by van Loo, Boucher and Pierre that he had already installed in his Cabinet Particulière. In 1756, he was ennobled by the King for his painting of the ceiling of the church of San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome, but gradually his reputation went into eclipse. Following administrative problems at the Academy of France and the departure of Marigny, Natoire was forced to resign his post in 1775. He remained in Italy, however, residing at Castel Gandolfo. He had outlived this era, but his sweet, elegant style was adapted for more modern tastes by students of the next generation such as Joseph-Marie Vien.

There are only two known paintings on copper by Natoire. Previously the only known copper work was the Adam and Eve in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, painted in 1740. The present work is dated by Dr. Jean-Patrice Marandel (Chief curator of the 🐓Los Angeles County Museum of Art) from the beginni𝓀ng of the 1730s, when Natoire retruned to Paris from Rome, thus making it his earliest known work on copper.