Portrait de Louise-Anne de Bourbon Condé, Mademoiselle de Charolais

Louise-Anne de Bourbon-Condé, known as Mademoiselle de Charolais, was a princess of the blood and a celebrated figure in Regency and early Louis XV court society, known for her wit, beauty, and unconventional conduct. Charles Joseph Natoire painted her portrait in 1730, during the early phase of his career when he was beginning to attract aristocratic patronage alongside his growing reputation for decorative mythological work. The painting is now in the collection designated Musées Nationaux Récupération, meaning it was recovered after being dispersed or removed during wartime. Mademoiselle de Charolais occupied a position at the highest level of French aristocratic society and had herself painted by several leading artists of the period. Natoire's portrait captures her with the elegant refinement and luminous surface quality that made his art distinctive within French Rococo painting, applying to a real sitter the same grace that animated his mythological figures.

Natoire brings to formal portraiture the decorative instincts of his history and mythological painting, giving the portrait a luminosity and surface quality that distinguishes it from more sober portrait conventions. The sitter's dress receives careful attention, with silks and lace handled with painterly pleasure. The face is animated and individual within a flattering Rococo idiom.