These lockdown days seem to me to be rolling one into the other with little to distinguish them, but I like to break them up with a self-congratulatory treat, probably for doing not very much, and I’m not sure if this little girl has done much to deserve one either.

Sarah Carr Gomm, Head of History of Art

Jean-Etienne Liotard, The Lavergne Family at Breakfast, 1754, pastel on paper stuck onto canvas, 80 x 106 cm, National Gallery London  

The painting shows an elegant woman at a breakfast tray holding a saucer steady as her daughter dips a biscuit into a full-to-the-brim cup of milky chocolate which will surely spill over. Liotard is showing off his ability to paint in pastels and the variety of textures – the dull silver pot with its wooden handle, the ceramic milk jug, the delicate bowl of sugar and their reflections in the lacquer tray – are a testament to his skill. He has arranged the composition in shades of cream, peach and brown with gorgeous highlights of turquoise in the girl’s dress, her bow and in the decorative pattern of the Chinese porcelain.

Everything is in the height of fashion: the high-backed cane chair; the woman’s low necked stripey dress; her choker and long, wide sleeves; and her elaborate hair, curled at the front and plaited and tied at the back, and with pomatum, a scented oil, to stiffen it and hold the grey powder. Her daughter’s hair has been made into curls which were held by folded tissue paper, heated with a pinching iron, and left to set. There is a look of concentration and a hint of a smile as she holds onto the tray and dunks her biscuit into her drink. In the mid-eighteenth century, drinking chocolate was a luxury and only for the wealthy. The very wealthiest had chocolate kitchens installed with staff dedicated to making it. Sir Hans Sloane is credited with inventing milky chocolate while on a trip to the Caribbean as he was not impressed by the Jamaican habit of mixing it with water. It was drunk in the morning, often for breakfast, and this must be a treat before she is fully dressed and the day begins. The open drawer shows a sheet of music peeking through, with the artist’s name on top, and perhaps this is a hint at the home-schooled music lesson to come once her chocolate is finished. I bet she made it last.