Charles Joseph Natoire

Artist Bio: Charles Joseph Natoire (1700-1777)

Natoire was a French painter in the Rococo manner and played a prominent role in the artistic life of France.

Natoire’s education in art started under the shadow of his father, Charles-Joseph Natoire, who was a sculptor. Natoire moved to Paris while still a teenager to apprentice with the painter Louis Galloche, later studying with Francois Le Moyne. Natoire’s first known painting, Manoah Offering a Sacrifice to the Lord, won him the Prix de Rome in 1721. He went on to study at the Académie de France in Rome, he was recognized for his draftsmanship and received commissions from important patrons and was awarded first prize from the Accademia di San Luca. Natoire later returned to Paris in 1730, and in 1784, he was received as a full member of the Académie Royale. In 1751 Natoire returned to Italy, after accepting the position of director of the Académie de France in Rome. In later years he focused his attention more to drawing teaching privately, notably to students such as Hubert Robert and Jean-Honore Fragonard.

His most important works are in the series of theÊHistory of Psyche for Germain Boffrand’s oval salon de la Princesse in the Hotel de Soubise, Paris, and for the tapestry cartoons for the series of the History of Don Quixote at the Chateau de Compigne; a royal residence built for Louis XV and restored by Napoleon.