The surgeon André Levret (1703-1780)

Chardin's portrait of the surgeon André Levret (1703–1780) situates the painter briefly in the genre of professional portraiture, a mode he rarely pursued but handled with the same directness he brought to his object paintings. Levret was a prominent Parisian obstetrician and surgeon known for developing new obstetric instruments, a figure of intellectual standing in the medical community of mid-eighteenth-century Paris. A portrait of such a figure by Chardin, if indeed a direct likeness rather than a genre figure, would have carried social significance as a record of professional achievement. Chardin's usual approach to the human face — observational, avoiding flattery but also avoiding harsh commentary — would have suited a professional man who sought a credible rather than merely elegant image. The work currently lacks a confirmed institutional location.

Chardin renders faces through careful tonal modelling that gives skin its characteristic warmth and slight translucency. The sitter's professional setting or attributes — likely books, instruments, or a plain interior — would be handled with the same material attentiveness Chardin applied to kitchen objects. The figure's posture and expression would be characteristically contained rather than theatrically animated.