Works of Charles-Joseph Natoire

The French painter Charles-Joseph Natoire (1700-1777), a pupil of François Lemoyne and known for his Rococo style, was the director of the French Academy in Rome from 1751 to 1775. He had a profound influence in the art circles of France of his era. Charles-Joseph Natoire is best known for the series of the History of Psyche for Germain Boffrand's oval salon de la Princesse in the Hôtel de Soubise, Paris. The tapestry cartoons for the series of the History of Don Quixote woven at the Beauvais tapestry manufacture, most of which are located at the Château de Compiègne, also won him much acclaim.

PD image: Adam et Ève chassés du Paradis terrestre (Adam and Eve expelled from Paradise) created in 1740 by Charles-Joseph Natoire, located at Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

PD Image: Venus Demanding Arms from Vulcan for Aeneas (1734), oil on canvas painting by Natoire, size 194 cm x 140 cm (76.38 in x 55.12 in), located at Musée Fabre, Montpellier, France.

PD image: The Toilet of Psyche (Psyché à sa toilette), oil on canvas painting by Natoire created in 1735, size 198 cm x 169 cm (77.95 in x 66.54 in), on location at New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans. This is one of the four paintings commissioned in 1735 by the farmer-general La Live de Bellegarde (1680-1751) to decorate the living room of his castle, La Chevrette, in Saint-Denis, France.

PD Image: Psyché obtenant de Proserpine l'elixir de beauté (Proserpine obtaining the elixir of beauty from Psyche) 1735 painting by Natoire located at Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles.

Proserpina (also spelt as Proserpine, Prosperine or Prosperina, and in Greek mythology her equivalent is Persephone) is an ancient Roman goddess whose story is the basis of the myth of springtime. She was the daughter of Ceres and Jupiter. Venus sent her son Amor (Cupid) to hit Pluto with one of his arrows of love. Proserpina was at the Pergusa Lake near Enna (Sicily) with some nymphs, when Pluto came out from the volcano Etna. Pluto abducted her and married her and lived with her in Inferi, the Roman Underworld ruled by him. Proserpina thus became the Queen of the Underworld. Being Jupiter's (and Ceres's) brother, Pluto was also her uncle.