''The Chocolate Girl'' or ''The Chocolate Girl of Vienna''(, ) is one of the best known

pastel A pastel () is an art medium that consists of powdered pigment and a binder (material), binder. It can exist in a variety of forms, including a stick, a square, a pebble, and a pan of color, among other forms. The pigments used in pastels are ...

s of the

Genevan Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

artist

Jean-Étienne Liotard Jean-Étienne Liotard () or Giovanni Stefano Liotard (22 December 1702 – 12 June 1789) was a Genevan painter, pastellist, printmaker, art theorist and art dealer. Born in the Republic of Geneva as the son of exiled French Huguenots, he spent mo ...

, which is in the collection of the

Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister The (, ''Old Masters Gallery'') in Dresden, Germany, displays around 750 paintings from the 15th to the 18th centuries. It includes major Italian Renaissance painting, Italian Renaissance works as well as Dutch Golden Age painting, Dutch and F ...

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

, Germany. The pastel depicts a maid carrying a lacquer serving tray holding a glass of water and a

porcelain Porcelain (), also called china, is a ceramic material made by heating Industrial mineral, raw materials, generally including kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The greater strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to oth ...

cup filled with

drinking chocolate Hot Chocolate are a British soul band formed by Errol Brown and Tony Wilson. The group had at least one hit song every year on the UK Singles Chart from 1970 to 1984. Their hits include "You Sexy Thing", a UK number two which also made the ...

. The maid and the objects in the picture are executed with almost photographic accuracy while the background consists only of a light-colored wall and the floor of plain floorboards.Das Schokoladenmädchen
on the website of Zu Gast in Dresden ''The Chocolate Girl'' was highly praised by Liotard's contemporaries.„Das schönste Pastell, das man je gesehen hat.“ Das Schokoladenmädchen von Jean-Étienne Liotard
on the website of the Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden

Description

Both the lacquer tray and the porcelain cup are derived from Japanese models. The chocolate drink is likely intended for an eminent person, as chocolate was in the 18th century still an expensive luxury only available to the upper class.Das Schokoladenmädchen
on the website of the Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden The serving tray is a gallery tray, i.e. it has a raised rim to protect against items slipping off the tray. The cup in which the chocolate is served is a

trembleuse A ''trembleuse'', also known as a ''tasse trembleuse'' or chocolate cup, is a pottery drinking cup and saucer with the saucer given a raised holding area, called the "gallery", in which the cup sits more securely than in the normal style. The ...

, supposedly used by people with shaking hands to avoid spilling, but in the 18th century strongly associated with

, then brewed rather strong and frothy. The Vienna Porcelain Manufactory was perhaps one the largest producers of trembleuse cups in the 18th century. Around the saucer is some beige material, perhaps food or a

napkin A napkin, serviette or face towelette is a square of cloth or paper tissue used at the table for wiping the mouth and fingers while eating. It is also sometimes used as a bib by tucking it into a shirt collar. It is usually small and folded, s ...

. The girl's headdress has been described variously as a cap cover or a kind of colorful regional cap. The girl's apron features a small

bodice A bodice () is an article of clothing traditionally for women and girls, covering the torso from the neck to the waist. The term typically refers to a specific type of upper garment common in Europe during the 16th to the 18th century, or to the ...

Identity of the model

In most literature described as a "maid", it is possible that the model was a banker's daughter from Vienna, Charlotte or Nannerl Baldauf, later Countess Drietrichstein. The back of an 18th-century reduced copy in

Orleans House Orleans House was a Palladian villa built by the architect John James in 1710 near the Thames at Twickenham, England, for the politician and diplomat James Johnston. It was subsequently named after Louis-Phillipe, Duke of Orléans who stayed ...

near London has an old label saying: "Portrait of Charlotte Baldauf. Drawn by Liotard during his stay at the house of Mr Baldauf, banker of Vienna. Charlotte Baldauf became Countess Drietrichstein. From the collection of Lord Taunton (E.Labouchere)", who received his peerage in 1859, and died in 1869.

Provenance

While in Venice, the Italian writer and art agent

Francesco Algarotti Count Francesco Algarotti (11 December 1712 – 3 May 1764) was an Italian polymath, philosopher, poet, essayist, anglophile, art critic and art collector. He was a man of broad knowledge, an expert in Newtonianism, architecture and opera. He w ...

purchased the pastel from the artist on 3 February 1745. Algarotti was making the acquisition on behalf of

Augustus III Augustus III (; – "the Saxon"; ; 17 October 1696 5 October 1763) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1733 until 1763, as well as Elector of Saxony in the Holy Roman Empire where he was known as Frederick Augustus II (). He w ...

, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony, for his art collection in Dresden. It is unclear whether Liotard was at the time of the purchase already in Venice to set up a lottery, but he was later that year as he then painted Algarotti's portrait. In a letter dated 13 February 1751 to his friend

Pierre-Jean Mariette Pierre-Jean Mariette (; 7 May 1694 – 10 September 1774) was a collector of and dealer in old master prints, a renowned connoisseur, especially of prints and drawings, and a chronicler of the careers of French Italian and Flemish artists. He ...

Algarotti wrote: Since 1855 the picture is part of the

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

the Germans transported it to

Königstein Fortress Königstein Fortress (), the "Saxony, Saxon Bastille", is a hilltop fortress near Dresden, in Saxon Switzerland, Germany, above the town of Königstein, Saxony, Königstein on the left bank of the River Elbe. It is one of the largest hilltop for ...

for better protection. The delicate pastel managed to survive the cold and damp there and was brought back to Dresden when the Germans retreated from the advancing

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

troops. After

, the painting was briefly in possession of the Soviet Union.

Use in marketing

In 1862 the American Baker's Chocolate Company obtained the rights to use the pastel. Around 1900, ''The Chocolate Girl'' served as inspiration for the commercial illustration of the "nurse" that appeared on

Droste Droste B.V. () is a Dutch chocolate manufacturer. Its headquarters and factory are located in the village of Vaassen, Netherlands. Droste operates as an independent business unit within Hosta, a German confectionery company. History Droste was ...

's cocoa tins. This was most probably a work of the commercial artist Jan (Johannes) Misset. According to Droste, "The illustration indicated the wholesome effect of chocolate milk and became inextricably bound with the name Droste.""Droste: from Confectioner to Chocolate producer"

Notes

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chocolate Girl, The 1744 paintings Portraits by Swiss artists 18th-century portraits Swiss art Portraits of women Chocolate drinks Chocolate culture

Chocolate Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cocoa beans that can be a liquid, solid, or paste, either by itself or to flavoring, flavor other foods. Cocoa beans are the processed seeds of the cacao tree (''Theobroma cacao''); unprocesse ...