# La Gouvernante \(The Governess\) [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [CHARDIN, Jean-Baptiste-Siméon]() - Date: 1701-1750 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 47 x 38 cm ## Commentary There are rarely men in Chardin's domestic interiors, and where boys occur they usually require - if only by implication — to be disciplined. It is mothers and quasi-maternal women who are prominent: preparing meals and children for school or church, and for household tasks. Part of the power of the subtly-painted La Gouvernante comes from the sense of everything in it being tightly organized, both aesthetically and morally. The gouvernante \(not a 'governess' in English nineteenth-century terms\) admonishes the boy in a strictly private way - but the lesson for future conduct of life is clear, though unstated. ## Related artworks - [A Child with a Teetotum]() - [A "Lean Diet" with Cooking Utensils]() - [A Vase of Flowers]() - [Attributes of Music]() - [Basket of Peaches, with Walnuts, Knife and Glass of Wine]() - [Draughtsman]() - [Fruit, Jug, and a Glass]() - [Game Still-Life with Hunting Dog]() - [Girl with Racket and Shuttlecock]() - [Grapes and Pomegranates]() - ['La Brioche' \(Cake\)]() - [Madame Chardin]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()