# Joseph Bonnier de la Mosson [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [NATTIER, Jean-Marc]() - Date: 1701-1750 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 138 x 105 cm ## Commentary Joseph Bonnier de la Mosson \(1702-1744\) was the scion of a family of well-to-do cloth merchants from the southern French city of Montpellier. He served as an officer in the French royal army until the death of his father in 1726. He was a polymath who prided himself on his knowledge of literature, music, and the sciences. He died unexpectedly on July 26, 1744. Nattier began Bonnier's portrait in early 1744, the year of the sitter's death; he signed and dated the canvas the following year. The portrait has few rivals in French portraiture of the time, not only for the elegance of its composition and the refinement of its colouring, but also for its vivid delineation of character. ## Related artworks - [Allegory of Justice Punishing Injustice]() - [Comtesse de Tillières]() - [Comtesse Tessin]() - [Henriette of France as Flora]() - [Judgment of Paris]() - [Madame Bouret as Diana]() - [Madame Henriette]() - [Madame la Comtesse d'Argenson]() - [Madame Le Fèvre de Caumartin as Hebe]() - [Madame Marsollier and her Daughter]() - [Madame Victoire]() - [Mademoiselle de Clermont "en Sultane"]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()