AVED, Jacques-André-Joseph
(b. 1702, Douai, d. 1766, Paris)

Madame Crozat

1741
Oil on canvas
Musée Fabre, Montpellier

The remarkable portrait of Madame Crozat was shown at the Salon in 1741. In this portrait Aved conveys something of the sitter's character - including a lack of vanity - and her ordinary existence. With her tapestry work and a teapot handy in the background, she might stand as representative of the highest bourgeoisie: sensible, comfortable, industrious. It was thought worth commenting on in 1741 that another woman would have suppressed the fact of those spectacles which Madame Crozat has just taken off and still holds; Aved seizes on this very detail to give a sense of momentary pause in a pleasantly busy domestic life.

In the nineteenth century the painting was supposed to be by Chardin.




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