Woman Peeling Turnips

Chardin’s work contains, in every sense of the word, a moral: the importance of truth, the necessity for strict guidance of children, the dignity of labour. He never weakens his art by explicit statement of such things; they are the essential fibre out of which it grows, and everything we know suggests that they were his own beliefs. The public understood him instinctively and probably always preferred his genre scenes to his still-lives. His Salon appearances were - especially in the years before Greuze arrived - outstandingly successful.

This is one of the four versions made by Chardin of this subject.