The Alarm; La Gouvernante Fidèle, 1723
Jean-François de Troy (1679-1752) specialized in history painting and genre painting with erotically charged scenes, for which he became best known. He was one of the leading painters of the Parisian high society . This painting is a good example of the gallant pieces fashionable in the 18th-century France. It depicts a secret rendezvous set in a romantic garden by a fountain while a maid interrupts the conservation with a dramatic gesture. This painting is one of the earliest ‘tableaux de mode’ by de Troy, a genre he is credited with the invention of.








