ATTRIBUTED TO JEANNE-ELISABETH CHAUDET (1767-1832) A LITTLE GIRL TRYING TO TEACH HER DOG TO READ Canvas Att. to J.-E. Chaudet, A little girl trying to teach her dog to read, canvas 91 x 72,50 CM - 35,8 x 28,5 IN. Jeanne-Elisabeth Chaudet enjoyed great success during her lifetime thanks to her particularly touching depictions of childhood. She exhibited regularly at the Salon from 1798 to 1817. Her paintings depict young children in familiar occupations, taking as models both anonymous youngsters and little Marie-Laetitia Murat (Versailles, Château de Versailles) or other children from the great families of the Empire. From her second Salon, in 1799, she was a great success with both the public and the critics, with "Une petite fille voulant apprendre à lire à un chien" (A little girl trying to teach a dog to read), of which our painting is another version. The charming child is shown in the early hours of the morning, still in her nightdress and barefoot, in all the freshness and naivety of her age. Holding her little dog firmly in her lap, she is teaching him, in all seriousness, to decipher the alphabet, in the candid certainty that this lesson will bear fruit. The image is brought to life by a discreet ray of light that separates the outside from the inside of the room, caresses the book and the basket of fruit, and balances the whole. Other versions of this composition are known, of similar dimensions, one signed (Hôtel Drouot, collegiate sale, 12 November 2015, no. 35), another unsigned (Paris, Audap et Mirabaud study, sale on 28 March 2012, lot 81), a small version (panel, Height 37 Width 26.8 CM, sale by Me Lombrail et Teucquam, 18 June 2008, lot 6).