La Maitresse d'ecole

Art Historical Context

" La Maîtresse d’école " is an engraving created in 1740 by Bernard Lépicié after an original painting by Jean Siméon Chardin. The work captures a quiet domestic scene of a schoolmistress instructing young children, reflecting Chardin’s signature focus on everyday life in eighteenth-century France. As a reproductive print, it translates the subtle textures and soft lighting of Chardin’s oil painting into the precise lines of engraving, allowing the composition to reach a wider audience beyond those who could view the original canvas. Chardin was celebrated during his lifetime for elevating humble subjects—household tasks, childhood lessons, and simple interiors—into scenes of quiet dignity and moral resonance. Created during the Enlightenment, when education and moral instruction were topics of lively public discussion, the image subtly underscores the value placed on learning and guidance within the home. Lépicié’s engraving played an important role in disseminating Chardin’s vision, helping to popularize these intimate genre scenes across Europe. Housed today in the National Gallery of Art’s Rosenwald Collection, the print exemplifies how reproductive engravings served as both artistic documents and cultural ambassadors, preserving and sharing the warmth and humanity of Chardin’s original work for generations of viewers.

About the Artist

Bernard Lépicié after Jean Siméon Chardin

**Bernard Lépicié (François-Bernard Lépicié, 1698/1699–1755)** was a French engraver best known for his reproductive prints after the paintings of Jean Siméon Chardin. Working in Paris during the height of the Rococo period, Lépicié specialized in translating Chardin’s intimate genre scenes—depictions of everyday domestic life—into finely detailed engravings that reached a broad audience across Eu...