ABSTRACT
As a 'daughter of France', the sixth child born to Louis XV and Marie Leczynska, Marie-Adelaide sat for celebrated court portraitists throughout her life.1 She was depicted in modes appropriate to each stage of youth and adulthood, at first as an enticing, attractive girl in the guise of the Diana, and then as a mature woman, increasingly absorbed by her seriousness of purpose, dignity and rank. As an adult, Madame Adelaide had intellectual and artistic interests.2 She was a well-educated woman, considering her position, with an amateur's understanding of science and mathematics. Having studied Italian with Goldoni and music with Guignon and Beaumarchais, Adelaide is depicted in full-length court portraits, whether by Jean-Marc Nattier (Figure 6.5) or Adelaide Labille-Guiard (Figure 7.1), as a woman of taste and learning. In both of these formal, yet naturalistic depictions of the princess, her activity and expression suggest a lively mind, while her pose and dress convey a stately demeanor. This is no doubt the way that the sitter wished to be portrayed for her contemporaries and posterity.
