Le maréchal duc de Richelieu

The Maréchal duc de Richelieu was one of the most celebrated—and notorious—figures of mid-eighteenth-century France: a soldier, diplomat, rake, and grandnephew of the famous Cardinal Richelieu. Louis François Armand de Vignerot du Plessis served as a marshal of France, fought with distinction at Fontenoy in 1745, and later commanded French forces in the Seven Years' War. His long career at Versailles made him an emblematic figure of the ancien régime aristocracy—charming, politically nimble, and fiercely image-conscious. Nattier painted him around 1750, when the duke was at the height of his influence, and the portrait was designed to project authority and refinement in equal measure. The Wallace Collection in London preserves a number of Rococo masterpieces collected by the fourth Marquess of Hertford in the nineteenth century; the Richelieu portrait entered this collection as part of that sustained acquisition of French eighteenth-century art. Nattier's ability to convey rank without losing the illusion of natural ease made him the preferred portraitist of the French military nobility.

Painted on canvas with the smooth, controlled application characteristic of Nattier's mature work. The sitter's military costume provides opportunities for detailed rendering of embroidery and braid in thin, precise strokes, contrasting with the broader handling of the dark background.