After Chardin is one of two etchings by Freud inspired by The Young Schoolmistress , a painting by the French artist Jean-Siméon Chardin (1737; National Gallery, London). Freud was fascinated by Chardin’s canvas and painted two works in response to it, followed by two etchings, both of which are in the Courtauld Gallery’s collection. This etching, the larger of the two, replicates the 18th-century composition – in reverse – but much of the area around the figures in the original painting is cropped out. This creates the impression of uneasily compressed space, forcing the viewer into closer intimacy with the physicality of the subjects, an effect typical of Freud’s work. He creates harsh shadows with hatched, overlapping lines; the schoolmistress consequently appears gaunter than in Chardin’s painting, the child’s face fleshier.

Marc Balakjian, the printer with whom Freud worked on this etching, describes seeing Freud drawing the composition in chalk directly onto the copper plate, on an easel set in front of Chardin’s work at the National Gallery. After completing his designs in chalk, Freud used a needle to draw on the plates, which were prepared with a layer of beeswax, rosin, and asphalt ground. Freud worked as slowly on his etchings as he did his paintings, and After Chardin was completed over a period of five months. Once finished, he started on the second, smaller plate, an impression of which is also in the Courtauld Gallery collection (G.2024.SP.2), which concentrates solely on the schoolmistress’ ear.

Studio Prints, London; accepted under the Cultural Gifts Scheme by HM Government from the archive of Studio Prints gifted by the Balakjian family and allocated to The Courtauld, 2024.

Treves, Toby, Lucian Freud : Catalogue Raisonné of the Prints. London : Modern Art Press, 2022.
Cat. 88 on pp. 222-223
pp. 34, 36-37, 220, 226, 252
This refers to the editioned print.