Nicolas Lancret: A Lady in a Garden having Coffee with Children
Nicolas Lancret, A Lady in a Garden having Coffee with Children , c.1742, National Gallery, London. One of the treasures of the National Gallery in London is A Lady in a Garden having Coffee with Children by the French artist Nicolas Lancret (1690-1743) The lady in Lancret’s painting appears to be giving her little girl a canard , a lump of sugar soaked in coffee – which some French mothers like to do even today. Canard is the French word for a duck, and the sugar lump dipped in coffee must be an allusion to a duck diving under the water. Lancret’s picture is a charming family scene, with a touch of humour, painted in the delicate colours of the Rococo style. The lady’s dress acts as the focus of the picture, and its colours of reddish orange and greenish blue are distributed in small touches throughout the painting: red flowers, blue sky, blue water. The composition is carefully constructed, with the family group forming a broad pyramid, balanced on the other side by a c...