‘The Lavergne Family Breakfast’ is generally considered the masterpiece of Swiss painter Jean-Etienne Liotard (1702 to 1789). It was made not in oil paint but in pastel, of which Liotard was an acknowledged master.
Executed across more than six sheets of paper, ‘The Lavergne Family Breakfast’ is Liotard’s largest and most ambitious pastel. It depicts a breakfast between an elegantly dressed woman and a young girl, whose hair is still in paper curlers. Between the two lies a luxurious breakfast still life. Although not strictly a portrait, the sitters have long been associated with relatives of Liotard’s, the Lavergne family, who lived in Lyon.
The calm domesticity of the scene is accentuated by the tremendous technical brilliance of his pastelwork, recording a hundred tiny details – the sheen on the metal coffee pot, the shiny ceramic jug, the silky fabrics, the reflections in the black lacquer tray, down to individual notes on the sheet music peeping out from the drawer at the bottom left.
The Lavergne Family Breakfast in pastel by Jean-Etienne Liotard (1754) Private collection, Waddesdon © Courtesy the owner
But it is not only a remarkable work in itself, it is also remarkable for the fact that twenty years later, Liotard painted exactly the same scene, with almost digital accuracy, in oil paint. According to the curators this is an extremely rare example of a painter anywhere ever painting the precise same subject with such photographic accuracy, in two different media. Above is the pastel version. Below is the paint version.
The Lavergne Family Breakfast in paint by Jean-Etienne Liotard (1773) © The National Gallery, London
In 2019 the National Gallery acquired the oil version and this provided the impetus to request the loan of the pastel version (in a private collection) so that the two works could be hung side by side. Both versions were made for Liotard’s most important patron, William Ponsonby, Viscount Duncannon (1704 to 1793) and this is probably the first time in 250 years that they have been seen side by side to compare and admire the difference in technique and effect between the two.
Can you spot the differences? The oil one is better at depicting darkness – the shadows, on the figures’ skin and on the background wall, are deeper and richer. As to the actual design, the curators remark only two significant differences between the two versions: There are only two differences: in the oil painting the bright blue decorations on the porcelain have turned brown, probably due to the use of smalt (a blue pigment that loses its colour), and in both works the signature on the sheet of music poking out of the table drawer bears a different date.
Using this pairing as a centrepiece the National Gallery has created a small (three rooms) but lovely and FREE exhibition, bringing together about 20 other works and objects to give a charming overview of Liotard’s life and career.
Pastel
Liotard was extremely versatile, producing works in pastel, oil, enamel, chalk and even on glass, but was best known for his work in pastel. Pastel is a notoriously delicate medium but the exhibition doesn’t just tell us this, it devotes an entire display to it.
Installation view of ‘Liotard and the Lavergne Family Breakfast’ at the National Gallery. Photo by the author
Here we can see an antique box of pastels from 1910 Paris alongside the tools you needed to use them, namely:
- a colour chart from La Maison du Pastel, Paris, showing the range of colours available in the 1930s
- a box of charcoal sticks for drawing, produced by the Maison Macle in the second half of the 19th century
- a porte-crayon (chalk holder) used for holding chalks whilst drawing
- a selection of ‘stumps’ used to blend pastels on the picture surface
- blue rag paper, of the sort used by pastellists
And there’s a lovely, calm, silent 4-minute video showing modern-day French artisans creating pastel pencils by hand. As the curators explain:
Pastel crayons are made of coloured pigment, a pale, chalky filler and a binder to hold them together. Until the late 17th century they had to be rolled by hand in the studio – a lengthy and laborious process. By the 18th century it was possible to buy ready-made pastel crayons in major European cities. The pastels on view here are antiques, made in Paris in the 1910s.
The act of using pastels is described as ‘painting’ in pastel. But unlike oil paint, pastel was not applied with a brush, nor could you mix pastel crayons to create new colours. Artists therefore needed many crayons to work with. In Liotard’s day pastellists painted onto vellum (prepared animal skin) or thick paper made from rags. These surfaces were often roughened with pumice stones or razor blades so that the pastel medium – in essence, millions of coloured particles – had something onto which to cling. The 18th-century art critic and philosopher Denis Diderot (1713 to 1784) described pastel, which commanded very high prices but was also extremely fragile, as ‘precious dust’.
Fascinating and instructive.
Travels
Liotard worked across the length and breadth of 18th-century Europe, from Paris, Rome, London and Amsterdam to the courts of Versailles and Vienna, and the show features a wall-sized map showing his extensive peregrinations.
Map showing Jean-Etienne Liotard’s travels round Europe. Photo by the author
Liotard’s most extended stay was in distant Constantinople where he accompanied his patron Viscount Duncannon. He spent four years there and developed a taste for oriental life and manners. He grew a long beard, adopted Turkish dress and nicknamed himself ‘the Turkish painter.’ The exhibition includes a group of black and red chalk drawings made on his travels, most strikingly charming studies he made of (European) women in Oriental dress.
Portrait of Signora Marigot, Smyrna by Jean-Etienne Liotard (1738) Musée du Louvre. Photo © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée du Louvre) / Jean-Gilles Berizzi
On this portrait the curators comment:
Liotard drew this portrait in Smyrna (present-day Īzmir) in May 1738, while on route to Constantinople. Smyrna was the busiest port on the Turkish coast, and Signora Marigot probably belonged to its thriving international community. Liotard captures her confident pose with great economy, using bare paper to create the folds of her gown and the ornaments in her hair. The high level of detail is characteristic of an artist skilled at working on a miniaturist’s scale.
Liotard in London
Liotard’s arrival in London in 1753, with a full beard and Turkish dress, created a sensation. He was introduced to the Royal Family, took lodgings in Golden Square near Piccadilly and advertised his works in the newspapers. A young Joshua Reynolds, later first President of the Royal Academy, enviously described Liotard’s ‘vast business at 25 guineas a head in crayons’ and Horace Walpole marvelled at a viscountess having her four daughters painted by Liotard ‘as his price is so great’.
London provided rich possibilities for a portraitist. It was taken as fact in the 18th century that the British loved having their portraits painted. Even allowing for a visit to Lyon in 1754, where ‘The Lavergne Family Breakfast’ was painted, some 50 works survive from the two years that Liotard spent in London between 1753 and 1755. Nobles, celebrities and even the Royal Family asked Liotard to paint their portraits in pastel, some of them donning Turkish dress themselves.
Take this striking portrait of Lady Anne Somerset, later Countess of Northampton.
Lady Anne Somerset, later Countess of Northampton by Jean-Etienne Liotard (about 1755) © The Devonshire Collections, Chatsworth. Reproduced by permission of the Chatsworth Settlement Trustees
As the curators explain:
With her cascading auburn locks and plunging neckline, Lady Anne (1741 to 1763) looks older than her fourteen years. But women’s lives were accelerated in the 18th century and Lady Anne was already active on the London social scene when this portrait was painted. She may have chosen this Turkish dress – either a garment Liotard owned or one inspired by his drawing Woman from Constantinople (also in display) – to create a more grown up, sophisticated persona.
Miniatures
Liotard also gained a reputation for his skill at creating miniatures. Several are featured here including a stunning miniature self-portrait. It’s only about 2 inches tall so the exquisiteness of the detail is breath-taking. Surely he must have used some kind of magnifying glass and the brushes must have had only a handful of hairs in them. A photo doesn’t do the richness of the real thing justice. Look at the perfectly painted flowers decorating his collar!
Self Portrait on enamel with ivory backing by Jean-Etienne Liotard (about 1753) Royal Collection Trust © His Majesty King Charles III 2023
The curators:
Liotard exploits the smooth and luminous surface of enamel to paint his wiry beard, the folds of his raspberry-red jacket and the tiny flowers that dance along his collar in minute detail. His first training as an artist in Geneva was with a miniaturist and he could rely on his skill in this demanding form of painting to impress. This miniature was probably intended as a means of self-promotion on his first arrival in London, capturing his unusual appearance.
Chocolate tracing
As well as the Family Breakfast the exhibition displays several other works highlighting Liotard’s skill at depicting porcelain services. Sadly, they don’t have the original of one of his other Greatest Hits, The Chocolate Girl (about 1756), which is astonishing both for the wonderful poise of the central figure and the incredible realistic detail of the chocolate cup and glass of water. What they do have is a tracing of the original work which Liotard would have used to generate copies, the same technique he used for making his copy of the Family Breakfast.
Porcelain
And this brings us to the final section of the exhibition, which focuses on Liotard’s fascination for, and incredible skill at depicting, porcelain.
Throughout his career Liotard was fascinated by porcelain, repeatedly depicting cups, saucers and the act of using them in his works. In this he was not alone: throughout the 18th century, paintings of people drinking tea, coffee and chocolate became extremely popular. Such paintings played on the idea of taste: both the literal tastes depicted in these pictures and the tasteful refinement of the scenes portrayed. Liotard was unusual, however, in his fidelity to the porcelain he depicted.
The cups and saucers in ‘The Lavergne Family Breakfast’, for example, can be identified as true Japanese porcelain and not cheaper European imitations. It is not surprising that Liotard owned several pieces of important porcelain, including the boxed tea service displayed nearby.
And here’s a photo of that tea service:
Luxury tea service given to Liotard by the Empress Maria-Theresa during his third visit to Vienna in 1777. Photo by the author
The curators:
Liotard received this luxury tea service as a gift from the Empress Maria-Theresa (1717 to 1780) during his third visit to Vienna in 1777 to 1778. He had not only worked extensively for the Empress as a portraitist, producing likenesses of her and her family in pastel, oil, enamel and chalk, but he had also enjoyed privileged access to the Imperial Porcelain Manufactory where this tea service was made. Liotard’s lifelong fascination with technical experimentation led him to help develop new enamel colours for production.
Summary
Eccentric man, amazing skills, beautiful art, lovely exhibition. And it’s FREE.
Video focusing on pastel
Related links
- Liotard and the Lavergne Family Breakfast continues for FREE in the Sunley Room at the National Gallery until 3 March 2024
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