Le Lever, Attribueted Jean-baptiste Charpentier (1728-1806)

The Rising of the Bedchamber,
attributed to Jean-Baptiste Charpentier,
oil on canvas, 58.5 x 43.5 cm (excluding frame),
78 x 57 cm. The painting is presented in a very fine 18th-century Louis XVI frame in carved and gilded wood. A descendant of Jean Charpentier, a Parisian painter and gilder, Jean-Baptiste Charpentier was admitted to the Academy of Saint Luke in 1760 and became a professor there. He exhibited portraits and genre scenes for many years. He was painter to the Duke of Penthièvre and his family, a very comfortable position; a full-length portrait of the Duke can be admired at the Museum of Rennes. He married Anne-Catherine Le Prince, sister of the famous painter Jean-Baptiste Le Prince. He exhibited at the Salon between 1780 and 1785. This intimate moment takes place in the bedchamber of a young noblewoman. Standing before her dressing table, where perfume bottles are placed, she holds a veil covering her hips, her smiling face turned towards the mirror. Her maid helps her dress; the blue silk gown is laid on a magnificent Louis XVI armchair of gilded wood upholstered in orange velvet. The painter offers us an intimate, refined scene in which he elegantly depicts the naked body of a young woman at her toilette.