The Duchess of Chaulnes as Hebe

In 1744 Anne-Josèphe Bonnier de La Mosson, then 26, became a duchess. Her husband's father died that year, and Michel-Ferdinand d'Albert d'Ailly succeeded him as duc de Chaulnes. Nattier signed and dated this canvas in the same year and showed it at the Paris Salon of 1745.

He casts her as Hebe, the goddess of youth who poured nectar for the gods on Olympus. She sits on a cloud and holds out a gold cup to an eagle, the bird of Jupiter, which grips a flaming thunderbolt in its claws. In her other hand is a glass ewer, and flowers are pinned at her shoulder and in her powdered hair.

The myth had a husband in it too. Hebe was the wife of Hercules, and in 1746 Nattier painted the duke as Hercules, a portrait that is also in the Louvre. This one remained in private hands until the collector Carlos de Beistegui gave it to the museum in 1942, with 20 other paintings, on condition that he keep them for life. It arrived in 1953.