Who painted the celebrated 1744 artwork The Chocolate Girl?

The celebrated 1744 artwork The Chocolate Girl was painted by Jean-Étienne Liotard.

Liotard created the pastel portrait while working in Dresden, and it depicts a young woman carrying a tray with a cup of hot chocolate and a glass of water. The sitter is often identified as Anna Baltauf, a maid who later married Prince Dietrichstein, though that identification is not completely certain.

The artwork is especially notable for its unusually realistic treatment of fabric, porcelain, glass, and light. Liotard’s choice of pastel helped him render the textures of the girl’s dress and apron with exceptional delicacy. The painting became one of his best-known works and helped establish his reputation as a portraitist.

The Chocolate Girl is now associated with the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden. It is sometimes confused with later chocolate-themed advertising imagery, but it is an eighteenth-century European portrait rather than a commercial poster.