Portrait Of A Young Woman As Diana, Michel-hubert Descours, 1750

Portrait of a young woman as Diana, oil on canvas attributed to the French painter Michel-Hubert Descours around 1750.
She is depicted facing forward, on a neutral background, with a few flowers pinned in her hair that falls over her shoulder and a pink ribbon tied around her neck. She holds a bow and carries a quiver, the common attributes of Diana the huntress.
Oil on canvas in a beautiful 18th century gilded wooden frame.
Dimensions with frame 107x85 cm
An old label tells us that the relining was carried out by the reliner of the Imperial Museums, which shows how much care was taken. On the frame, an attribution to the painter Jean-Marc Nattier has been noted in pencil. Indeed, our portrait has a family resemblance to the portraits of the illustrious painter.
Jean-Hubert Descours (1675-1766) was born in Bernay near Lisieux in Normandy. Michel Hubert-Descours was an artist from Bernay who was born in 1707 and died in 1775. He came from a wealthy bourgeois family. His life is known from a 57-page autobiographical manuscript: Les amours de Monsieur Hubert-Descours avec Mademoiselle Marie Fabre, written by him in 1737.
In 1889, Abbé Porée published a collection entitled Un peintre bernayen – Michel Hubert-Descours – 1707-1775, which includes many passages from the document.
His father was a painter and encouraged him to follow the same path. He left for Paris in 1731 and studied in the studio of Hyacinthe Rigaud, a portrait painter of the monarchy under Louis XIV and Louis XV. Hyacinthe Rigaud is considered one of the greatest French portrait painters of the classical period.
Michel Hubert- returned to Bernay in 1741 with his family. His status as a recognized portrait painter in Paris assured him a clientele in Normandy where he produced numerous portraits of the nobility.