L'Enfant au toton

by 1738

Oil on canvas, 26 1/2 × 30 in. Musée du Louvre, Paris

Books and a quill sit unused while the jeweller's son watches his top: a portrait that is really a picture of attention.

Look at

Light from the left falls on the powdered hair, face and shirt; the rest of the figure stays in soft brown.
His lowered gaze runs down to the small top at the table's edge, so the eye follows his look to the point of the picture.
The face, hair and hands are blended with soft edges. No line outlines them.

The sitter is Auguste Gabriel Godefroy, the jeweller Charles Godefroy's younger son; the picture hung in the 1738 Salon.
Bought by the Louvre in 1907 with funds left by Léon Dru.

Image: Musée du Louvre · Public domain (faithful reproduction of a public-domain 2D work)