This is a painting by Austrian artist Franz Eybl (1806-1880) who by the age of ten had already entered the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Most of his paintings were landscapes or portraits so this lovely nude, from about 1860, is unusual. Portraying an everyday scene, rather than a classical or mythical story, was somewhat unusual and daring for the time. Her figure (especially her posterior) is very reminiscent of J, the computer game body double, I realise. I did do some drawings of J rather like this. I wonder where they are? Viennese bakers, in this period, were famous all over Europe and the croissant (as seen on the bottom left), as we would call it now, was very much an Austrian not a French creation (the modern croissant was created by a former Austrian artillery officer (inserts desperate military reference) who set up a Viennese bakery in Paris in the late eighteen thirties).
