Portrait of Charlotte-Louise de Rohan-Guéméné, princesse de Masseran (1722-1786)

Charlotte-Louise de Rohan-Guéméné was born into the senior branch of the House of Rohan in 1722 and later became Princess of Masseran through marriage to the Spanish diplomat Carlo Francesco Ferrero. The Rohan family was one of the most powerful ducal houses in France, connected to the highest levels of court society and church hierarchy; a Rohan in the eighteenth century once famously said 'king I cannot be, prince I disdain to be—Rohan I am.' Nattier's 1738 portrait, now in the Museum of the History of France at Versailles, captures her at sixteen, just entering the adult world of Versailles. The Museum of the History of France—housed in the palace itself—preserves thousands of portraits as documents of French historical memory, and this painting takes its place within that comprehensive visual archive. Nattier was thirty-eight years older than his sitter, and his portrait of her youth conveys the freshness and social promise appropriate to a young woman of one of France's great families.

Painting a sixteen-year-old required Nattier to convey youth through soft, lightly modelled features without losing the social authority appropriate to her rank. The dress is rendered with full adult seriousness, creating a productive tension between the youthful face and the mature sophistication of the costume.