Schall, Jean-Frédéric (1752 - 1825)

This oil on wood was attributed to François Boucher, Pierre-Antoine Baudouin and Nicolas Lavreince in turn, and is today identified as a work by Jean-Frédéric Schall. Born in Strasbourg, he entered the l’École des élèves protégés de l’Académie royale (School of Protected Students of the Royal Academy) in Paris in June 1772, under the protection of Nicolas Guy Brenet, remaining there until 1777. However, Schall abandoned his public career to turn towards private art lovers, such as the famous piano manufacturers Erard, who were among his protectors.

The work of Jean-Honoré Fragonard and contemporary romantic literature had made its mark on him and Schall's production is largely dominated by a chivalrous tone, with more or less explicit erotic notes. His inventions were disseminated through coloured engravings, notably by Augustin Legrand and Louis-Marin Bonnet. Schall portrays a young woman dozing on an armchair, showing one of her feet on a stool in a sophisticated and feminine interior. Caught in the middle of a daydream, she is taken unawares in her privacy, almost naked and abandoned. The book she has allowed to slip from her hand is surely the source of her most secret thoughts. During the Enlightenment period, many moralists condemned the corrupting influence of the novel on a female readership considered too sensitive. Learning is associated here with pleasure and considered a cause of this state of affairs. A young man is taking advantage of this attitude of abandonment to lift her scarf using a long wooden cane known as a badine. This individual is therefore able to contemplate her throat thus revealed, accentuating the erotic nature of the scene. In a sort of admonishing gesture, the cane held out by the intriguer prompts the viewer to observe the young woman and her attitude more attentively. The painter's workmanship is smooth, and the colours and fabrics have the porcelain-like reflections characteristic of the artist. Schall works with light in a precise, detailed manner, giving his work an exquisite appearance similar to the work of other painters such as Leprince or Colson.

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