Not Your Average Female Portrait
Ways in which you wouldn't normally view a woman
Curated by Lily Johnston

Jean Baptiste Simeon Chardin, The Purveryoress, 1739

Hello Yente. Getting all of the good gossip? While women usually tend to be thought of as chatter boxes and never mind their own business, there aren't many painted cases portraying them as such. In eighteenth-centrury Paris, the women on the sixth floor (maids) weren't acknowledged for much more than a body to clean and cook. Put into the hot basement with fresh meat from the market, they were expected to keep their mouth shut and avert their eyes from any business not pertaining to themselves. Straying away from the sexual side of views on women in paintings, I will look at a more political side.

I can imagine this painting outraged the public. Seeing their maids as sneaky gossip mongers instead of nonhuman beings. While this painting represents normality, that doesn't mean one should paint it. Leave it to good ol' Chardin to paint the truth.

Mostly known for his still life paintings, Chardin occasionally paints a portrait about a question within society. He lived and painted during the time of enlightenment when science came into question and how people function in the world. Restless French citizens longed for rebellion and equality. Divided into a timeless class system, the maids would always be maids, and honestly not much has changed. The question of this painting is less how right or wrong it is, but instead painting the unpainted side of society. The rich could commission, but the working class and the poor would never have a record other than their baptism, marriage and death. And even then, that isn't much. I find it funny how when Chardin does indeed paint the unrepresented, he paints them in the truest of light, getting enjoyment where they could.