This masterpiece from 1754 represents a tender moment captured between a mother and her daughter having breakfast.
The Lavergne Family Breakfast
The fact that a pastel work has managed to last nearly 300 years and still be in this remarkable condition is amazing.
The Lavergne Family Breakfast
At their breakfast table, an elegantly dressed woman watches a little girl dip a biscuit into a cup of milky coffee.
As it is early morning, the girl wears paper curlers in her hair.
The Lavergne Family Breakfast
The clothing suggests the family are very comfortably off. Liotard has spared no details in his depictions of the fabrics, from the sheen of the woman’s black and pink striped silk dress, to the delicate pattern of her matching sleeves and apron, which even has tiny pins to fix it to her bodice.
The Lavergne Family Breakfast
Coffee and chocolate were exclusive, luxurious beverages in the eighteenth century, often enjoyed at breakfast by those who could afford them.
The Lavergne Family Breakfast
For this picture, Liotard used PASTELS. This soft, friable material – composed of chalk, pigment and a gum binder – was perfectly suited to portraiture, producing rapid, luminous likenesses.
The Lavergne Family Breakfast
Liotard uses a build-up of thick, wet pastel to create dimensional reflections on the silver coffee pot and Chinese porcelain, whose glossy surfaces are in turn reflected in the lacquer tray.
The Lavergne Family Breakfast
The Lavergne Family Breakfast
A minute signature and date – Liotard / a lion / 1754 (‘Liotard / in Lyon / 1754’) – are found on the sheet music that pokes out from the open drawer.
Liotard, in Lyon, 1754
Liotard (1702 – 89) was born in Geneva, and trained partly in Paris. He travelled widely and visited Rome, Constantinople, Vienna, Paris, London and Holland. From 1758 he was mainly resident in Geneva. Liotard specialised in pastel, executing genre subjects and portraits.
Self-portrait Musée d’Art et d’Histoire de GenèveD
Liotard was one of the leading portraitists of the 18th century. Best known for his superlative pastels, Liotard mastered every medium to which he turned his hand. In his day he was one of Europe’s most sought-after portraitists, commanding staggering prices and a loyal, international clientele.
Liotard visited Istanbul and painted numerous pastels of Turkish domestic scenes; he also continued to wear Turkish dress for much of the time when back in Europe.
Self-portrait in Turkish costume, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden
His eccentric adoption of oriental costume secured him the nickname of the Turkish painter
Accepted in lieu of Inheritance Tax by HM Government from the estate of George Pinto and allocated to the National Gallery, 2019
The Lavergne Family Breakfast
Jean-Etienne Liotard
vincent
Madame Moitessier