Weibliche Figur mit Harfe (Muse mit Lyra)

Jean Marc Nattier painted this allegorical figure of a muse with a lyre around 1710, when he was establishing his reputation at the French court as a painter capable of elevating portraiture into the realm of mythology. The work belongs to a long tradition of depicting the nine Muses—classical goddesses of artistic and intellectual inspiration drawn from Greco-Roman antiquity—that enjoyed renewed prestige under Louis XIV and his successors, who cast themselves as patrons of the arts in the tradition of Apollo. Nattier's treatment merges the devotional gravity of Baroque figuration with a lighter, more sensuous touch anticipating full Rococo elegance. The harp or lyre was the canonical attribute of the lyric Muse, frequently used to identify Erato (love poetry) or Calliope (epic poetry) depending on accompanying symbols. Nattier would become famous for precisely this mode of mythological portraiture—en déesse or en allégorie—placing real sitters within divine frameworks, a convention that allowed court ladies to be simultaneously flattered and immortalised. That the Munich Central Collecting Point held this canvas reflects the extraordinary dispersal of European collections during the Second World War, when artworks were seized, evacuated, and later gathered by Allied forces pending restitution.

Oil on canvas executed with Nattier's characteristic smooth finish and warm flesh tones. The brushwork is controlled and academic, building luminous skin through fine glazes. Drapery rendered in soft, flowing strokes contrasts with the harder definition of the instrument's strings and frame.