All about hairpins - An Interior with a Lady, her Maid, and a Gentleman, by Louis-Rolland Trinquesse, 1776.

 

Adapted and augmented from the 2006 Christie's lot essay:

A petit maître who operated outside the academic establishment during the reign of Louis XVI, Louis-Rolland Trinquesse (circa 1746, Paris? - circa 1800, Paris?) was known for his portraits and genre scenes that drew on the tradition of the tableau de mode. Probably of Burgundian origins, he trained in Paris at the Académie Royale and in The Hague, and exhibited at the Salon de la Correspondance, an independent learned society devoted to the encouragement of the arts and sciences, organized by Pahin de la Blancherie and supported through subscriptions. During his lifetime, Trinquesse earned a respected position as a portraitist, counting among his patrons the vicomtesse de Laval, the governor of Paris, and the duc de Cossé-Brissac, as well as artists, architects, and men of letters. In the nineteenth century, the Goncourt brothers collected Trinquesse's costume drawings, which, today, are probably the artist's most familiar works.

As John Collins observed in his thorough study of the present painting, the work owes much "to the portrayals of intrigues among the fashionable bourgeoisie by the earlier generation of French artists, such as de Troy, Watteau, and Boucher. But rather than being regressive in outlook, Trinquesse's painting anticipates the highly polished 'Metsu Manner' of the genre scenes of Marguerite Gérard and Louis-Léopold Boilly". This intimate grouping of figures in a woman's boudoir draws attention to the presence of the male visitor who might represent a husband or fiancé, but who more likely appears to be, as Collins suggested in the Ottawa exhibition catalogue, a client being entertained by a courtesan at her morning toilette and in the presence of her maid. She listens to his entreaties while undertaking the intricate task of removing pins from a cushion and using them to secure her elaborate headdress. 

Other than the rather démodé wall coverings, the furnishings in the apartment are very up to date, the height of the newly stylish neoclassicism. Of particular note is the athénienne or brûle-parfum - a freestanding incense burner - seen in the right foreground. Apparently, Trinquesse's depiction referenced a popular model, as a very similar athénienne, dated 1775, was auctioned at Sotheby's in 2016. Likewise, a pair that closely resembles this, and which is believed to have at one time been in the possession of the comtesse du Barry, is in the collection of the musée Nissim de Camondo. 

From the Sotheby's auction of 30 June 2016, Paris, Lot 112.