Portrait of Madame La Traverse

Jacques André Joseph Aved was among the most accomplished portraitists working in Paris during the reign of Louis XV. Born in Douai, he was raised in Amsterdam following the death of his father, a physician, and trained there under François Boitard and the engraver Bernard Picart. This Northern formation left an enduring mark on his work, imbuing his portraits with a naturalism and directness that distinguished them from the more decorative tendencies of his French contemporaries. Aved arrived in Paris in 1721, entered the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture in 1731, and was received as an academician in 1734. He maintained a close friendship with Jean-Siméon Chardin, and the two artists profoundly influenced one another: it was reportedly Aved's teasing remark that still lifes were easier to paint than portraits that prompted Chardin to take up genre painting.

The present portrait, exhibited at the Salon of 1743, exemplifies Aved's mature style. Madame La Traverse is depicted at three-quarter length, seated before a warm, shadowed interior, her gaze meeting the viewer with quiet assurance. She wears a teal silk gown with gathered pleats and lace-trimmed cuffs, a lace cap secured with a russet ribbon, and a diamond cross suspended at her bodice. An embroidered silk work bag rests at her arm, and folded papers lie on the table before her, introducing subtle narrative elements characteristic of Aved's bourgeois portraiture. The artist's debt to seventeenth century Dutch portraiture is evident in the careful description of textures, the controlled palette, and the psychological intimacy of the likeness.

The portrait's distinguished exhibition history, including its inclusion in the landmark Chefs d'œuvre de l'art français exhibition of 1937 and the Royal Academy's European Masters of the Eighteenth Century survey in 1954-55, underscores its recognized place within Aved's oeuvre and the broader tradition of French eighteenth-century portraiture.