Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister Dresden
Pastel em pergaminho - 82x52 - 1743-1744
The Chocolate Girl (French: La Belle Chocolatière, German: Das Schokoladenmädchen) is one of the
most prominent pastels of Swiss artist Jean-Étienne
Liotard, showing a chocolate-serving maid. The girl carries a tray
with a porcelain chocolate cup and a glass of water. Liotard's contemporaries
classed The Chocolate Girl as
his masterpiece.
On 3 February 1745 Francesco
Algarotti purchased the drawing directly from Liotard in
Venice. In an unknown year (between 1747 and 1754?) the picture became part of
the collection of August
III of Poland. In a letter dated 13 February 1751 to his
friend Pierre-Jean
Mariette he wrote:
I have bought a pastel picture about three feet high by the celebrated
Liotard. It shows a young German chambermaid in profile, carrying a tray with a
glass of water and a cup of chocolate. The picture is almost devoid of shadows,
with a pale background, the light being furnished by two windows reflected in
the glass. It is painted in half-tones with imperceptible graduations of light
and with a perfect modelling...and although it is a European picture it could
appeal to the Chinese who, as you know, are sworn enemies of shadows. With
regard to the perfection of the work, it is a Holbein in pastel.
Since 1855 the picture with the serving maid from Vienna, who might have
been a certain Nannerl Baldauf, has hung in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden.
Around 1900, La Belle
Chocolatière served as inspiration for the commercial illustration
of the "nurse" that appeared on Droste's cocoa tins. This
was most probably a work of the commercial artist Jan (Johannes) Musset.
According to Droste, "The illustration indicated the wholesome effect of
chocolate milk and became inextricably bound with the name Droste."
In 1862 the American Baker's Chocolate Company obtained the rights to use the
pastel. During World War
II the Germans transported it to Königstein
Fortress. The delicate pastel managed to survive the cold and damp
there and was brought back to Dresden after the Germans retreated from
advancing Soviet troops.
Theories concerning the girl's headdress run from a cap cover to an echo
of the colorful regional caps. The girl's apron features a small bodice.
A portrait of a neatly dressed young girl gracefully holding a tray with hot chocolate and a glass of water is one of the most famous works by the Swiss artist, Jean-Etienne Liotard and one of the most delightful highlights of the Dresden Gallery. The Chocolate Girl (known also as La Belle Chocolatière, or Das Schokoladenmädchen) doesn’t take any notice of the viewer fully concentrating on serving the hot chocolate, which Liotard depicts almost as a chic ritual. Chocolate was a luxury drink at the time and could be afforded only by the nobility or merchants. Liotard painted The Chocolate Girl between 1743 and 1745, during his stay in Vienna at the court of the Austrian Empress Maria-Theresia. It was common back then that young pretty girls from families of lower nobility were recruited to the court as maidens or companions to princesses. While it has never been determined with certainty who was the model for this portrait, it is possible that it was one of the maidens at the court who simply impressed the artist with her beauty.
A portrait of a neatly dressed young girl gracefully holding a tray with hot chocolate and a glass of water is one of the most famous works by the Swiss artist, Jean-Etienne Liotard and one of the most delightful highlights of the Dresden Gallery. The Chocolate Girl (known also as La Belle Chocolatière, or Das Schokoladenmädchen) doesn’t take any notice of the viewer fully concentrating on serving the hot chocolate, which Liotard depicts almost as a chic ritual. Chocolate was a luxury drink at the time and could be afforded only by the nobility or merchants. Liotard painted The Chocolate Girl between 1743 and 1745, during his stay in Vienna at the court of the Austrian Empress Maria-Theresia. It was common back then that young pretty girls from families of lower nobility were recruited to the court as maidens or companions to princesses. While it has never been determined with certainty who was the model for this portrait, it is possible that it was one of the maidens at the court who simply impressed the artist with her beauty.
There is of course another interpretation that reads more like a
fairy-tale but nevertheless offers a convincing explanation to this finely
painted portrait and its subject. It is thought that the chocolate girl was a
daughter of an impoverished knight Anna Balthauf, who worked in one of
the chocolate shops in Vienna. One day, Prince Dietrichstein, a young Austrian
nobleman visited the shop and fell in love with Anna and soon thereafter asked
her to marry him. The present work could be commissioned to Liotard as a
wedding gift, portraying Anna as the Prince first saw her.
Liotard was well in demand at courts and cities in Europe owing to his naturalistic style, accurately finished detail and distinguished pastel technique. No wonder that he was trained as a miniature painter (see detail of the Chocolate Girl’s tray in the slideshow and keep in mind that this is pastel not oil paint!), however he was rejected by the Académie Royale and spent his career traveling throughout Europe and European colonies painting portraits and gaining reputation for his skill in achieving likeness of a sitter.
Liotard was well in demand at courts and cities in Europe owing to his naturalistic style, accurately finished detail and distinguished pastel technique. No wonder that he was trained as a miniature painter (see detail of the Chocolate Girl’s tray in the slideshow and keep in mind that this is pastel not oil paint!), however he was rejected by the Académie Royale and spent his career traveling throughout Europe and European colonies painting portraits and gaining reputation for his skill in achieving likeness of a sitter.
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