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National Gallery of Art - THE COLLECTION
image of Joseph Bonnier de la Mosson
Jean-Marc Nattier (artist)
French, 1685 - 1766
Joseph Bonnier de la Mosson, 1745
oil on canvas
overall: 137.9 x 105.4 cm (54 5/16 x 41 1/2 in.)
Samuel H. Kress Collection
1961.9.30
From the Tour: 18th-Century France — Chardin and Portraiture
Object 7 of 11

Bonnier was the perfect eighteenth-century amateur, whose wealth allowed him the leisure to study nature's curiosities. His large collection, open to the public, held cabinets devoted to anatomy, chemistry, pharmacy, and mechanical engineering. Nattier's portrait shows a man of lively intelligence, informally dressed and in a relaxed pose, surrounded by the objects that held his interest: books about natural history (perhaps a publication he sponsored), jars of biological specimens, and mechanical models.

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