Beautiful chocolate picture. Painting Chocolate Girl - pastel colors in the Dresden Gallery

La Belle Chocolatière, German Das Schokoladenmädchen) - most famous picture by the 18th century Swiss artist J. E. Lyotard, depicting a maid carrying hot chocolate on a tray. Made using pastel technique on parchment.

Story

The legend about the creation of this painting is as follows: in 1745, the Austrian aristocrat Prince Dietrichstein entered a Viennese coffee shop to try a new chocolate drink, which was being talked about so much at that time. His waitress turned out to be Anna Baltauf, the daughter of the impoverished nobleman Melchior Baltauf. The prince was captivated by her charm, and, despite the objections of his family, took the girl as his wife. “The Chocolate Girl” became a wedding gift for the new princess, ordered by the newlyweds from the fashionable Swiss artist Lyotard. The portrait artist depicted the bride in an 18th-century waitress costume, immortalizing love at first sight. (This is the version - real story Cinderella - was popularized in Baker company booklets).

According to another version, the future princess's name was Charlotte Balthauf, her father was a Viennese banker and the painting was painted in his house - this is what the inscription says, preserved on a copy of the painting stored in London in the Orleans House Gallery. There is also an option according to which it was not a commissioned portrait, but a painting painted according to at will the artist, struck by the beauty of the girl, from the chambermaid of Empress Maria Theresa, whose name was Balduf and who later became the wife of Joseph Wenzel von Lichtenstein. In any case, the identity of the model has not been definitely established.

From a letter

“I bought a pastel by the famous Lyotard.
It is executed in imperceptible gradations
light and with excellent relief.
The conveyed nature is not at all
changed; being a European work,
pastel made in the spirit of the Chinese...
sworn enemies of the shadow. As for
completion of the work, we can say
in one word: this is Holbein of pastels.
It shows a young woman in profile
German maid girl who
carries a tray with a glass of water and
a cup of chocolate."

After leaving Vienna, Lyotard arrived in Venice, where he sold this pastel to Count Francesco Algarotti, who was filling the collection of Augustus III, King of Poland, and Frederick II of Prussia.

In popular culture

The portrait was exhibited in the Dresden Gallery, where it was seen by Henry L. Pierce, president of an American chocolate trading company, and in 1862 the American company Baker's Chocolate acquired the rights to use the painting, making it the oldest trademark in the United States and one of the oldest in the world. world. Often there is an option to use it in the form of a black and white silhouette. Another copy of the painting is in the Baker Company House Museum in Dorchester, Massachusetts.

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Notes

An excerpt characterizing the Chocolate Girl (picture)

It looked, I must say, very unpleasant... I had skates with short boots(at that time it was still impossible for us to get high ones) and I saw that my entire leg at the ankle was cut almost to the bone... Others also saw this, and then panic began. The faint-hearted girls almost fainted, because, frankly speaking, the view was creepy. To my surprise, I was not scared and did not cry, although in the first seconds I was almost in shock. Clutching the cut with my hands with all my might, I tried to concentrate and think about something pleasant, which turned out to be very difficult due to the cutting pain in my leg. Blood seeped through the fingers and fell in large drops onto the ice, gradually collecting on it into a small puddle...
Naturally, this could not calm down the already quite nervous guys. Someone ran to call an ambulance, and someone clumsily tried to help me somehow, only complicating an already unpleasant situation for me. Then I tried to concentrate again and thought that the bleeding should stop. And she began to wait patiently. To everyone’s surprise, literally within a minute nothing was leaking through my fingers! I asked our boys to help me get up. Fortunately, my neighbor, Romas, was there, who usually never contradicted me in anything. I asked him to help me get up. He said that if I stood up, the blood would probably “flow like a river” again. I took my hands away from the cut... and what a surprise we were when we saw that the blood was no longer flowing at all! It looked very unusual - the wound was large and open, but almost completely dry.
When I finally arrived ambulance, the doctor who examined me could not understand what had happened and why, with such deep wound, no blood flows. But he also didn’t know that not only was I not bleeding, but I also didn’t feel any pain at all! I saw the wound with my own eyes and, by all the laws of nature, I should have felt wild pain... which, oddly enough, in this case there wasn't at all. They took me to the hospital and prepared to stitch me up.
When I said that I didn’t want anesthesia, the doctor looked at me as if I was quietly crazy and prepared to give me an anesthetic injection. Then I told him that I would scream... This time he looked at me very carefully and, nodding his head, began to stitch it up. It was very strange to watch my flesh being pierced by a long needle, and instead of something very painful and unpleasant, I only felt a slight “mosquito” bite. The doctor watched me all the time and asked several times if I was okay. I answered yes. Then he asked if this always happens to me? I said no, just now.
I don’t know whether he was a very “advanced” doctor for that time, or whether I managed to somehow convince him, but one way or another, he believed me and didn’t ask any more questions. About an hour later I was already at home and happily devoured my grandmother’s warm pies in the kitchen, not feeling full and sincerely surprised at such a wild feeling of hunger, as if I had not eaten for several days. Now, of course, I already understand that it was simply too much loss of energy after my “self-medication”, which urgently needed to be restored, but then, of course, I could not know this yet.
The second case of the same strange self-anesthesia occurred during the operation, which our family doctor, Dana, persuaded us to undergo. As far as I could remember, my mother and I very often had tonsillitis. This happened not only from a cold in winter, but also in summer, when it was very dry and warm outside. As soon as we overheated a little, our sore throat was right there and forced us to lie in bed for a week or two, which my mother and I equally disliked. And so, after consulting, we finally decided to heed the voice of “professional medicine” and remove what so often prevented us from living a normal life (although, as it later turned out, there was no need to remove it and this, again, was another mistake of our “omniscient » doctors).
The operation was scheduled for one of weekdays when my mother, like everyone else, naturally worked. She and I agreed that first, in the morning, I would go for the operation, and after work she would do it. But my mother firmly promised that she would definitely try to come for at least half an hour before the doctor began to “gut” me. Oddly enough, I didn’t feel fear, but there was some kind of nagging feeling of uncertainty. This was the first operation in my life and I had no idea how it would happen.
From the very morning, like a lion cub in a cage, I walked back and forth along the corridor, waiting for all this to finally begin. Then, as now, what I disliked most was waiting for anything or anyone. And I always preferred the most unpleasant reality to any “fluffy” uncertainty. When I knew what was happening and how, I was ready to fight it or, if necessary, solve something. According to my understanding, there were no unsolvable situations - there were only indecisive or indifferent people. Therefore, even then, in the hospital, I really wanted to get rid of the “trouble” hanging over my head as quickly as possible and know that it was already behind me...
I never liked hospitals. The sight of so many suffering people in one room filled me with real horror. I wanted, but I couldn’t help them, and at the same time I felt their pain just as strongly (apparently completely “turning on”) as if it were mine. I tried to somehow protect myself from this, but it fell like a real avalanche, leaving not the slightest opportunity to escape from all this pain. I wanted to close my eyes, withdraw into myself and run, without turning around from all this, as far as possible and as quickly as possible...

Swiss artist J.-E. Lyotard was called "the painter of kings and beautiful women"Everything in his life consisted of happy accidents and circumstances that talented artist, gifted also with a practical mind, skillfully took advantage of it.

J.-E. Lyotard. Self-portrait in Turkish costume. Pastel.

At one time, the family of J.-E. Lyotard was forced to emigrate from France to Geneva. Future artist At one time he studied in Paris with the engraver and miniaturist Masse. Then in the life of J.-E. Lyotard began years of wandering, during which he visited many cities and countries. He traveled as a companion of noble people, as many artists of the 18th century often had to do.

Travel gave J.-E. Lyotard had a variety of material for observation and was accustomed to almost documentary accuracy in his sketches. For portraits of J.-E. Lyotard is characterized by exceptional accuracy in reproducing the model, and it is for this reason that the artist gained European fame and acquired high patrons. He received a warm welcome from the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa in Vienna, the Pope in Rome, and the Turkish Sultan in Constantinople. Everyone liked the portraits of J.-E. Lyotard's similarity of faces, completeness in the depiction of materials of clothing and jewelry and the colorfulness of his canvases.

The portrait of the beautiful Anna Baltauf, world famous under the name “La belle chocoladiere” and copied and engraved countless times (located in the Dresden Gallery) was painted in Vienna.
Most likely, Anna was a servant at the court of the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa, where the painter noticed the girl. Anna, the daughter of an impoverished knight, served as a maid at court.
They say that it was there that the young Prince Dietrichstein noticed her beauty.
He fell in love and - to the horror of the aristocracy - married her.
As a wedding gift, Prince Dietrichstein commissioned Jean Etienne Lyotard, who was working at the Viennese court at the time, to paint a portrait of his bride in the very clothes in which he first saw her.
They say that on the wedding day, the bride invited her chocolate makers and, being happy with her elevation, gave them her hand with the words: “Here! Now I have become a princess, and you can kiss my hand.”
This painting is also notable for the fact that it was the first to depict the first porcelain in Europe - Meissen

Now this painting is in the Dresden art gallery, but it was originally bought by the Venetian Count Algarotti, a connoisseur and lover of painting. In one of his letters, he reported: “I bought the famous Lyotard pastel. It is executed in imperceptible degradations of light and with excellent relief. The conveyed nature is not at all changed; being a European work, the pastel is executed in the spirit of the Chinese... sworn enemies of the shadow. Well Regarding the completeness of the work, it can be said in one word: this is a Holbein of pastels.It depicts in profile a young German chambermaid carrying a tray with a glass of water and a cup of chocolate.

Indeed, the painting depicts only one female figure.

But she is depicted in such a way that she captivates the majority of spectators who visit famous gallery in Dresden. J.-E. Lyotard managed to give the picture the character of a genre scene. In front of the “Chocolate Girl” there is free space, so the impression is that the model is not posing for the artist, but is walking in front of the viewer with small steps, carefully and carefully carrying the tray.

The “Chocolate Girl”’s eyes are modestly lowered, but the consciousness of her attractiveness illuminates her entire gentle and sweet face. Her posture, the position of her head and hands - everything is full of the most natural grace. Her small foot in a gray high-heeled shoe modestly peeks out from under her skirt.

The colors of the “Chocolate Girl” clothes were chosen by J.-E. Lyotard in soft harmony: a silver-gray skirt, a golden bodice, a shining white apron, a transparent white scarf and a fresh silk cap - pink and delicate, like a rose petal... The artist, with his usual precision, does not deviate one bit from the most detailed reproduction of the form the body of the “Chocolate Girl” and her clothes. So, for example, the thick silk of her dress is quite realistically bristling; The folds of the apron, just taken out of the linen drawer, have not yet straightened out; a glass of water reflects the window, and the line of the upper edge of a small tray is reflected in it.

The painting “Chocolate Girl” is distinguished by its completeness in every detail, which J.-E constantly strived for. Lyotard. Art critic M. Alpatov believes that “due to all these features, “The Chocolate Girl” can be classified as a miracle of optical illusion in art, like those bunches of grapes in the painting of the famous ancient Greek artist, which the sparrows tried to peck." After the conventions and mannerisms of some 18th-century masters, the almost photographic precision of J.-E. Lyotard's painting gave the impression of a revelation.

The artist worked exclusively in the pastel technique, very common in the 18th century, and mastered it perfectly. But J.-E. Lyotard was not only a virtuoso master this technique, but also its convinced theoretician. He believed that pastel most naturally conveys color and subtle transitions of light and shade within light colorful tones. The very task of showing a figure in a white apron against a white wall is a difficult pictorial task, but J.-E. Lyotard's combination of a gray-gray and white apron with pale gray shadows and a steely tint of water is a real poetry of colors. In addition, by using thin transparent shadows in “Chocolate Girl,” he achieved perfect accuracy of the drawing, as well as maximum convexity and definition of volumes.

based on Wikipedia materials and the story of N.A. Ionina, Veche publishing house, 2002

Anyone who has ever visited the Dresden Art Gallery will definitely remember two paintings: “ Sistine Madonna» Raphael and a small pastel. Why did we suddenly remember the picture when talking about chocolate? Because the picture is called “Chocolate Girl” and it has its own legends and history.

A young woman appears before us charming girl in a white apron and cap, as they were worn in the 18th century, with a tray in his hands. On the tray is a glass of water and a cup of steaming chocolate, this is how they drank a popular drink in Europe at that time. They didn’t even know about solid chocolate back then.

The artist worked out all the details so carefully that the portrait seems like a living photograph. A light blush on the girl’s cheeks, a languid look. IN transparent glass The window is reflected with water. The elegant white mug is recognizable as newly invented Meissen porcelain. The color scheme is very simple, restrained, but warm and gentle.

It is not known exactly who Lyotard wrote “The Chocolate Girl” from. But in each version of the painting there is a love story for a woman and chocolate.

The Legend of the Beautiful Chocolate Girl

According to one version, the Austrian Prince Dietrichstein went to a coffee shop to try chocolate, which all of Europe was crazy about. His waitress turned out to be the daughter of an impoverished nobleman, Anna Baltauf. Dietrichstein was captivated by both the taste of the drink and the beauty of the girl.

Of course, the noble family did not share the heir’s hobbies. But this one wonderful story love had a happy ending, and Anna and the prince got married. And the wedding gift to the wife was her portrait in the form in which her future husband first saw her.

The touching story of love at first sight between chocolate Cinderella and a rich heir could not leave anyone indifferent.

And when the president of the American chocolate company, Henry L. Pierce, saw the picture in 1862, he immediately bought the rights to use the image.

The beautiful “Chocolate Girl” has become a symbol of the Baker’s Chocolate brand. This was perhaps the first acquisition of image rights for such a purpose in business history.

Since 1765, the painting was kept in the Dresden Gallery, but disappeared during the Second World War. And was found Soviet troops in the Königstein fortress.

Now the original painting is in Germany, in the Dresden Gallery, and its copy is in the Baker Chocolate Company Museum in Dorchester, Massachusetts.

Video “Chocolate Girl, Jean Etienne Lyotard - review of the painting”

Other interesting materials.

Since childhood, I remember the awe that this picture evokes. You can look at a glass of water endlessly.
I dream of collecting a collection of books "IZHZL" (from life wonderful people). This is so, a lyrical digression on a near-cultural topic

And here is the info from the site http://www.nearyou.ru/100kartin/100karrt_36.html
Swiss artist J.-E. Lyotard was called "the painter of kings and beautiful women." Everything in his life consisted of happy accidents and circumstances, which the talented artist, gifted with a practical mind, skillfully took advantage of.

At one time, the family of J.-E. Lyotard was forced to emigrate from France to Geneva. The future artist at one time studied in Paris with the engraver and miniaturist Masse. Then in the life of J.-E. Lyotard began years of wandering, during which he visited many cities and countries. He traveled as a companion of noble people, as many artists of the 18th century often had to do.

Now this canvas is in the Dresden Art Gallery, but it was originally bought by the Venetian Count Algarotti, a connoisseur and lover of painting. In one of his letters, he reported: “I bought the famous Lyotard pastel. It is executed in imperceptible degradations of light and with excellent relief. The conveyed nature is not at all changed; being a European work, the pastel is executed in the spirit of the Chinese... sworn enemies of the shadow. Well Regarding the completeness of the work, it can be said in one word: this is a Holbein of pastels.It depicts in profile a young German chambermaid carrying a tray with a glass of water and a cup of chocolate.

Indeed, the painting depicts only one female figure.
But she is depicted in such a way that she captivates the majority of spectators who visit the famous gallery in Dresden. J.-E. Lyotard managed to give the picture the character of a genre scene. In front of the “Chocolate Girl” there is free space, so the impression is that the model is not posing for the artist, but is walking in front of the viewer with small steps, carefully and carefully carrying the tray.

The colors of the “Chocolate Girl” clothes were chosen by J.-E. Lyotard in soft harmony: a silver-gray skirt, a golden bodice, a shining white apron, a transparent white scarf and a fresh silk cap - pink and delicate, like a rose petal... The artist, with his usual precision, does not deviate a single line from the most detailed reproduction of the form the body of the “Chocolate Girl” and her clothes. So, for example, the thick silk of her dress is quite realistically bristling; The folds of the apron, just taken out of the linen drawer, have not yet straightened out; a glass of water reflects the window, and the line of the upper edge of a small tray is reflected in it.

The painting “Chocolate Girl” is distinguished by its completeness in every detail, which J.-E constantly strived for. Lyotard. Art critic M. Alpatov believes that “due to all these features, the “Chocolate Girl” can be classified as a miracle of optical illusion in art, like those bunches of grapes in the painting of the famous ancient Greek artist, which sparrows tried to peck.” After the conventions and mannerisms of some 18th-century masters, the almost photographic precision of J.-E. Lyotard came across as a revelation.

The artist worked exclusively in the pastel technique, very common in the 18th century, and mastered it perfectly. But J.-E. Lyotard was not only a virtuoso master of this technique, but also its convinced theoretician. He believed that pastel most naturally conveys color and subtle transitions of light and shade within light colorful tones. The very task of showing a figure in a white apron against a white wall is a difficult pictorial task, but J.-E. Lyotard's combination of a gray-gray and white apron with pale gray shadows and a steely tint of water is a real poetry of colors. In addition, by using thin transparent shadows in “Chocolate Girl,” he achieved perfect accuracy of the drawing, as well as maximum convexity and definition of volumes.

based on Wikipedia materials and the story of N.A. Ionina, Veche publishing house, 2002

Stories about masterpieces

Jean-Etienne Lyotard. Chocolate Girl, 1745. Fragment | Photo: artchive.ru

Swiss artist Jean-Etienne Lyotard is considered one of the most mysterious painters of the 18th century. Legends about his travels and adventures have survived to this day no less than exciting stories about his paintings. Most famous work Lyotara is undoubtedly a “Chocolate Girl”. Associated with this picture interesting legend: according to the testimony of the artist’s contemporaries, here he depicted a waitress who married a prince to whom she once served chocolate in a cafe. But about character and moral qualities very contradictory evidence of this person has been preserved...

Jean-Etienne Lyotard. Self-Portrait (Lyotard the Laughing), 1770. Fragment | Photo: artchive.ru

In Lyotard’s painting “The Chocolate Lady” we see a modest girl, humbly lowering her gaze, probably in front of a coffee shop visitor to whom she is in a hurry to serve hot chocolate. According to one version, which for a long time was generally accepted, the artist depicted in this picture Anna Baltauf, a well-bred representative of an impoverished noble family. One day in 1745, Prince Dietrichstein, an Austrian aristocrat, a descendant of the richest ancient family I went to a Viennese coffee shop to try a newfangled chocolate drink. He was so captivated by the sweet girl’s modest charm that he decided to marry her, despite the protests of his family.

Jean-Etienne Lyotard. Chocolate girl, 1745 | Photo: artchive.ru

Wanting to give it to his bride unusual gift, the prince allegedly ordered her portrait from the artist Lyotard. However it was unusual portrait– the prince asked to portray the girl in the image in which he met her and fell in love at first sight. According to another version, the artist depicted in the painting the chambermaid of the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa, who amazed him with her beauty.

Jean-Etienne Lyotard. Self-portraits of 1768 and 1773 | Photo: liveinternet.ru and artchive.ru

Skeptics argue that in reality everything was much less romantic than in beautiful legend. And even Anna was not Anna, but the simpleton Nandl Balthauf, who came not from a noble family, but from ordinary family- all her ancestors were servants, and women achieved the blessings of life by often providing special services in the master's beds. It was precisely this fate that the girl and her mother prepared for, insisting that her daughter could not achieve either money or happiness in any other way.

Jean-Etienne Lyotard. Lady with chocolate. Fragment | Photo: artchive.ru

According to this version, the prince first saw the girl not in a cafe, but as a servant in the house of someone he knew. Nandl tried to catch his eye more often and tried in every possible way to attract attention to herself. The plan was a success, and the smart maid soon became the aristocrat's mistress. However, she was not satisfied with the role of “one of”, and she ensured that the prince began to introduce her to his guests and stopped meeting with other mistresses.

*Chocolate Girl* Lyotara in the Dresden Gallery | Photo: livemaster.ru

And soon the world was shocked by the news: Prince Dietrichstein was marrying a maid! He actually ordered a portrait of the bride from Lyotard, and when he told him about his chosen one, the artist said: “Such women always achieve what they want. And when she achieves it, you will have nowhere to run.” The prince was surprised and asked what Lyotard meant, and he replied: “Everything has its time. The moment will come when you yourself will understand this. I'm afraid, however, that it will be too late." But, apparently, the prince did not understand anything: until the end of his days he lived with his chosen one and died, bequeathing his entire fortune to her. Not a single woman could approach him anymore. And his wife, in her declining years, managed to achieve honor and recognition in the world.

*Chocolate Girl* – one of the most popular works of the XVIII century | Photo: fb.ru

Since 1765, the “Chocolate Girl” was in the Dresden Gallery, and during World War II, the Nazis took this painting along with other gallery exhibits to Königstein Castle above the Elbe, where later collection was discovered by Soviet troops. How miraculously the precious collection was preserved there, despite the cold and dampness of the basements, art historians are still amazed to this day.

One of the oldest brands USA | Photo: fb.ru and itom.dk

The identity of the model in the portrait has not yet been precisely identified, but Lyotard’s “Chocolate Girl” seems to fascinate everyone who comes to the Dresden Gallery, and is considered one of its best masterpieces. It is noteworthy that Shokoladnitsa became one of the first trademarks in the history of marketing. It is still used as a logo by a chain of coffee shops.