All of Francoise Duparc's surviving paintings blend
portraiture and genre. Her subjects appear to be acquain-
tances whom she has asked to pose; she has captured
both their self-consciousness and the spontaneity of their
everyday activities, the depiction of which characterizes
genre painting. But genre painting, especially when it
portrayed members of the humblest classes, was never
popular in eighteenth-century France. The Le Nain
brothers and Georges de La Tour, who also chose such
themes, were largely ignored. Their present high standing
is due to a different, more democratic political climate
and to different aesthetic values: we no longer require
artists to provide ideal images of humanity for our moral
edification but rather regard such idealization as a falsifi-
cation of the truth. Duparc gives no improving message
and discreetly refrains from judging her subjects. In brief,
her works neither elevate nor instruct. This restraint
largely explains her lack of popular success during her
lifetime, even if her talent did not go completely unrecog-
nized by her eighteenth-century French contemporaries.