Victor Tortez (1843-1890), The Girl in the Pastry Shop

Victor Tortez was a Parisian artist who trained at the École des Beaux-Arts, where he was taught by Jean-Jacques Henner (1829-1905) and Jean-Léon Gérome (1824-1904), among others. Little else is known about Tortez’s life. He primarily painted portraits of aristocrats; other known works from his hand include female nudes and paintings of children.

As such, the appeal of this painting derives not so much from its creator as from its subject: the little girl looking longingly at the sweet delicacies. The tension between the vividly rendered cakes the girl can only look at on the one hand, and her neat but eager appearance on the other, evokes a universally recognisable feeling of innocent desire and nostalgia.

The panel is stamped TACHET BREVETE A PARIS on the reverse, which is a reference to a process developed by Claude François Tachet, who launched his invention of layered wood in 1845. The way in which he glued together thin sheets of wood fibre resulted in panels that were extremely well suited for painting: the panels had an improved adhesive quality and retained their flatness.