Portrait of a Young Girl

Chardin's late pastel portraits of the 1770s represent a striking development in a painter who had worked almost exclusively in oil throughout his career. By the time this 'Portrait of a Young Girl' was made in 1777, Chardin was in his late seventies and had largely abandoned oil painting due to the toxic effects of lead white pigment on his eyesight. The switch to pastel was not simply a concession to failing health but a creative transformation: his pastel portraits are among the most original works of the century in that medium, with a broken, granular surface quality unlike the smooth blending techniques of contemporaries such as Perronneau or La Tour. A young girl as subject would have suited Chardin's interest in contained, absorbed states — the same quality he found in children at play and women at work throughout his earlier genre paintings.

Chardin's pastel technique differs fundamentally from his oil handling yet achieves comparable effects. Strokes of individual pastel colour are applied without blending, creating a mosaic-like surface that resolves into coherent form at a viewing distance. The face is built up through warm pinks, ochres, and cool greys layered on a mid-toned ground, capturing the luminosity of young skin without any of the smoothness typical of conventional pastel portraiture.