"The most beautiful pastel ever seen": The Chocolate Girl by Jean-Étienne Liotard in the Dresden Picture Gallery

The Chocolate Girl is one of the most famous works by the Swiss artist Jean-Étienne Liotard (1702-1789). This remarkable painting shows an unknown domestic servant—until then a rarely chosen subject—carrying a luxurious chocolate drink on a platter. Its sober and precise observation exemplifies the art of the Enlightenment and anticipates the realism of the nineteenth century. The painting had a tremendous effect in its time—deemed “the most beautiful pastel ever seen” by Liotard’s contempo...