La paresseuse (The Idle One)

A stunning, detailed interior dating from Edward Lamson Henry's stay in Europe, the present work is a triumph of both technical skill and didactic expression. According to William H. Gerdts, La paresseuse is "one of the most handsome of all his pictures...it is meant to suggest the idleness and abandon of the French rococo, th[e] contrast between the upper-class lifestyle and the diligent maid, which...would be meant for an English audience, especially, to recall the moral superiority of the English eighteenth century over the lassitude of the French at the time...Yet, the French title, and even the reconstruction of the eighteenth century, is an homage to the French artist he most admired, Meissonier, who was himself painting small, jewel-like reconstructions." (unpublished letter, 1987)