The family of the Duke of Penthièvre called la tasse de chocolat

The painting was created in 1768 by Jean-Baptiste Charpentier the Elder in oil on canvas. It is held today at the Musée national des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon, under inventory number MV 7716, and forms part of the Collections des musées de France. Beyond its 1768 date of execution and its current location at the Palace of Versailles, the available records do not document the circumstances of its commission, the original patron, or the chain of ownership by which it entered the national collection.

The painting was created in 1768 by Jean-Baptiste Charpentier the Elder, a French artist, and is catalogued in the Joconde database under the title LA FAMILLE DU DUC DE PENTHIEVRE, DIT LA TASSE DE CHOCOLAT. It belongs to the collection of the Palace of Versailles, where it is housed in the Musée national des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon.

The work measures 176 cm in height and 256 cm in width, executed in oil paint on canvas. Its subject includes members of the Penthièvre family, depicted within an interior setting that references domestic rituals such as chocolate consumption.

The painting influenced 18th-century French decorative arts through its depiction of domestic aristocratic life, particularly the popularization of chocolate drinking among elite circles depicted in the composition. Its representation of familial intimacy within a formal setting contributed to evolving Rococo aesthetics in domestic interior painting, as evidenced by its continued scholarly attention in modern catalogues. The work remains part of the Palace of Versailles collection, maintaining its historical association with the ducal household.

Jean‑Baptiste Charpentier the Elder painted The family of the Duke of Penthièvre called la tasse de chocolat in 1768. Executed in oil on canvas, the work shows a small gathering of aristocrats in an opulently furnished interior, each holding a drinking vessel. The composition captures a moment of informal leisure among members of the Penthièvre household, rendered in the refined elegance typical of French Rococo portraiture.