As one of the leading painters at the court of Louis XV, Jean-Marc Nattier developed a reputation for a type of portraiture in which the sitters are cast in allegorical or mythological roles. In this portrait, the wife and daughter of a prominent Paris banker are endowed with handfuls of blossoms, attributes of Flora, goddess of flowers. In a composition of remarkable simplicity and restraint, Nattier achieves a balance between individual likeness and a generalized image of feminine beauty, rendered with the technical refinement and delicacy of detail which made him such a success at court.

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