Brother of Jean-Baptiste Nattier. As well as being taught by his father,
he trained with his godfather, Jean Jouvenet, and attended the drawing
classes of the Académie Royale, where in 1700 he won the Premier Prix de
Dessin. From around 1703 he worked on La Galerie du Palais du
Luxembourg. The experience of copying the work of Rubens does not,
however, seem to have had a liberating effect on his draughtsmanship,
which was described by the 18th-century collector Pierre-Jean Mariette
as ‘cold’. Nattier was commissioned to make further drawings for
engravers in the early part of his career, including those after
Hyacinthe Rigaud’s famous state portrait of Louis XIV (1701;
Paris, Louvre) in 1710, which indicates that he had established a
reputation while he was still quite young. Although he was offered a
place at the Académie de France in Rome on the recommendation of
Jouvenet, Nattier preferred to remain in Paris and further his career.
In 1717 he nevertheless made a trip to Holland, where he painted
portraits of Peter the Great and the Empress Catherine (St
Petersburg, Hermitage). The Tsar offered Nattier work at the Russian
court, but the artist declined the offer. He remained in Paris for the
rest of his life.
