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Charles-Joseph Natoire(1700-1777)FrenchGustaf Lundberg, Portrait ofCharles- Joseph Natoire, Louvre.Charles-Joseph Natoire is a French painter ofthe Rococo, a period with a fancy style but lessgrandiose than the Baroque. He was born in Nîmes,France. There he was trained in the fundamentalsof drawing by his father, who was a sculptor.At the age of seventeen he went to Paris andapprenticed under Louis Galloche. He thenattended the Royal Academy of Painting andSculpture. However, it was not until hisapprenticeship with François Lemoyne that hedeveloped an interest in anatomy.In 1721, Natoire’s artwork Sacrifice ofManoah to Obtain a Son won the Prix de Rome, anelite scholarship that provided travel to the Italiancity. During Natoire’s studies at the French Academyin Rome he received several commissions fromuding the French Ambassador. He also won first prizeimportant patrons inclfrom the Accademia di San Luca for his work Moses Returning from Sinai.In 1730, he returned to Paris. Four years later he was a full member ofthe Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. He spent nine years working onone commission, from the Director-General of the Department of theHousehold of the King, providing paintings for the Chateau de La Chapelle-Godefroy, an estate in the French countryside. In the late 1730s he workedwith other artists like Francois Boucher to restore the Hotel de Soubise, amansion in Paris which today is the Museum of French History. In 1751, hereturned to Italy and became the director of the French Academy in Romewhere he taught students who became well-known artists, such as HubertRobert and Jean-Honore Fragonard.Charles-Jospeh Natiore, Gardens of the Villa d'Este at Tivoli,watercolor, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.Artist Biographies Page 17