19th C Girl with Loaves

This painting sold at auction yesterday.  A bit too rich for my blood, but through the wonders of the Internet, I can capture, enjoy and share a little digital version of it with fellow bread enthusiasts.  The painting is late 19th C French, more or less contemporary with Emile Friant's that Chad Robertson chose for the frontpiece of Tartine Bread.  However here the loaves are more 'professionally' scored and shaped than the monster under the knife of the curiously detached and overdressed character in Friant's 1888 Les Canotiers de la Meurthe.  This girl's miche must be a bit dense and/or boldly crusted for it not to collapse, the way she's holding it as if for a discus throw.

If you are a TFLer who won that auction and you find yourself overcome with a gluten-induced urge to offload the painting at a (substantial) loss, I'm all ears.

Happy Baking All,

Tom