Portrait of the Duchess of Parma and her Daughter Isabelle

The Duchess of Parma depicted in this 1750 portrait was Louise Élisabeth de France, the eldest surviving daughter of Louis XV, who married Philip of Bourbon-Parma in 1739. Her daughter Isabelle—shown beside her—was born in 1741 and would later become the first wife of Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, connecting this French princess to the Habsburg dynasty at the very centre of eighteenth-century European power. Nattier's double portrait, now at Hillwood Estate in Washington DC—the former home of Marjorie Merriweather Post—places mother and daughter within the conventions of dynastic portraiture while softening the image with Rococo warmth. Louise Élisabeth was the king's favourite daughter and was known for her lively, somewhat domineering personality. The Parma court, though small, was a significant centre of Franco-Italian cultural exchange in the mid-century, and its portraits were part of the diplomatic image-making that sustained the network of Bourbon family thrones across Europe.

The double portrait format required Nattier to balance two subjects of different ages within a unified composition. He achieves this by linking mother and daughter through posture and gesture, while differentiating their costumes to maintain individual identity.