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Nicolas Lancret, 'The Four Times of Day: Morning', by 1739

About the work

In this, the first of Lancret’s Four Times of Day, a priest attends a young lady as she takes her breakfast and gets dressed. The clock records the time as 9.08 am. The young woman, her breast exposed, has turned away from her dressing table to pour hot water into the priest’s teacup. As the pair look directly at each other, the priest risks his hand being scalded – perhaps a visual metaphor for the risk to his soul. Lancret leaves unanswered the question of why there are two spare cups on the table, but the sense that visitors might arrive adds a frisson to the scene.

The second scene of Hogarth’s ‘A Harlot’s Progress’ may have inspired Lancret. Hogarth possibly repaid Lancret’s compliment in The Toilette, one of his six pictures from Marriage A-la-Mode (also in The National Gallery’s collection), in which the lawyer Silvertongue, wearing a wig and costume similar to those of Lancret’s cleric, pays court to the Countess.

Key facts

Full title
The Four Times of Day: Morning
Artist
Nicolas Lancret
Artist dates
1690 - 1743
Part of the series
The Four Times of Day
Date made
by 1739
Medium and support
oil on copper
Dimensions
28.3 × 36.4 cm
Acquisition credit
Bequeathed by Sir Bernard Eckstein, 1948
Inventory number
NG5867
Location
Not on display
Collection
Main Collection

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

About the series: The Four Times of Day

Nicolas Lancret, 'The Four Times of Day: Morning', by 1739

We do not know whether someone commissioned The Four Times of Day: Morning, Midday, Afternoon and Evening or whether Lancret produced them speculatively in the hope of making money from the engravings, since series of prints were popular with the public. Painting series of pictures was something of a speciality for Lancret – he had already produced The Four Seasons in about 1719, The Four Elements by August 1732, and The Four Ages of Man (also in the National Gallery’s collection) by July 1735. The Four Times of Day was complete by February 1741, when the engraver Nicolas de Larmessin III presented proofs of his engravings of them to the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in Paris.

This series was painted on copper, which allowed for the fine and detailed brushwork we see here in the hands and faces of the principal figures, where Lancret made numerous small adjustments to produce particular expressions and gestures.

The Four Times of Day: Morning
The Four Times of Day: Morning
Nicolas Lancret
In this, the first of Lancret’s Four Times of Day, a priest attends a young lady as she takes her breakfast and gets dressed. The clock records the time as 9.08 am. The young woman, her breast exposed, has turned away from her dressing table to pour hot water into the priest’s teacup. As the pair...
Not on display
The Four Times of Day: Midday
The Four Times of Day: Midday
Nicolas Lancret
This is the second painting in Lancret’s series The Four Times of Day. A sculpted cherub (Love) sits on top of a sundial, the shadow of which points to the Roman numerals for 12 inscribed into the stone. The man and two women note the moment on the sundial, and one of the ladies holds her pocket...
Not on display
The Four Times of Day: Afternoon
The Four Times of Day: Afternoon
Nicolas Lancret
This is the third in Lancret’s series of paintings The Four Times of Day. A gentleman and three ladies are gathered around a tric-trac table in a woodland glade. Tric-trac was a game similar to backgammon. The gentleman and a lady are playing at the table – she has just thrown the dice from her h...
Not on display
The Four Times of Day: Evening
The Four Times of Day: Evening
Nicolas Lancret
This is the final scene in Lancret’s series of paintings The Four Times of Day. By the silvery light of a spring or summer moon a group of women are bathing together in a woodland pond. One of the women standing in the pond is about to splash another who is lying on the ground, apparently testing...
Not on display

More works by Nicolas Lancret

A Lady in a Garden having Coffee with Children
A Lady in a Garden having Coffee with Children
Nicolas Lancret
A wealthy family enjoy coffee beside a fountain. The mother offers a spoon from her cup to her little daughter. The father sits beside them holding the tray while their servant pours coffee from the pot into his cup. The painting is more likely to be a genre scene than a portrait of a particular...
Room 35
The Four Ages of Man: Adolescence
The Four Ages of Man: Adolescence
Nicolas Lancret
This is the second of Lancret’s series of paintings depicting The Four Ages of Man and represents Adolescence (L'Adolescence).A young lady stands in the centre of the painting in a grand circular room with tall windows. She admires herself in the mirror held up by a young page while her hair is d...
Not on display
The Four Ages of Man: Childhood
The Four Ages of Man: Childhood
Nicolas Lancret
This is the first of Lancret’s series of paintings depicting The Four Ages of Man.Ten wealthy children, a baby, a nurse and a governess are outside in a tiled neoclassical loggia. Two of the children are being taught to read by the governess, while the others are playing boisterous games. A boy a...
Not on display
The Four Ages of Man: Old Age
The Four Ages of Man: Old Age
Nicolas Lancret
This is the fourth and final painting in Lancret’s series of The Four Ages of Man, entitled Old Age (La Vieillesse). Lancret dispensed with the usual depiction of old people warming themselves indoors before an open fire to take the scene outdoors. A young woman rejects an old man’s advances whil...
Not on display
The Four Ages of Man: Youth
The Four Ages of Man: Youth
Nicolas Lancret
This is the third of Lancret’s series of paintings depicting The Four Ages of Man and represents Youth (La Jeunesse).Three pairs of lovers embrace one another in a woodland glade. In the foreground, two archers are engaged in a game of ‘pape-guay’, which involves shooting at an imitation bird (us...
Not on display