Jean-Baptiste Charpentier Paris 1728 - 1806

Lined canvas. The canvas has a horizontal seam that runs through the entire upper half; the surface is very flat and thin and with fine craquelure throughout. Under UV light: there are two generations of inpainting: older inpainting on the figures is barely visible under the old varnish, and the newer retouches at center right are of recent date; substantial inpainting to the background at center.
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Charpentier, often compared to his more famous contemporary Jean-Baptiste Greuze, is best known for his lively genre scenes. Though his handling is much in the style of 18^th century French painters, he was part of the fashionable 'goût hollandaise,' showing the influence of 17^th century Dutch masters like Gerard Dou, Godfried Schalcken and Frans van Mieris the Elder. Charpentier widely exhibited these animated genre scenes during his lifetime, showing paintings at the Académie de Saint-Luc, the Salon de la Correspondance, and the official Salon du Louvre after it was opened to all artists following the Revolution.