[1] According to one nineteenth-century writer, at a time when it was hard for unknown painters to come to the attention of the Royal Academy, he first found notice by displaying a painting at the "small Corpus Christi" on the Place Dauphine.

He made a modest living by "produc[ing] paintings in the various genres at whatever price his customers chose to pay him",[3] and by such work as the restoration of the frescoes at the Galerie François I at Fontainebleau in 1731.

[6] The primary object of the painting is a young kitchen maid on a low chair, looking to the right of the viewer during what appears to be a pause from her task.

The block features a meat-cleaver with a spat of blood, bringing in the suggestion of violence to the purposed domestic reflection.

In addition, the kitchen is kept in neat order; a sharp contrast to the portrayals of domestic servants in other paintings of the time.

[5] Chardin first exhibited the painting along with five other works at the Salon of 1739 as La Ratisseuse de Navets (Woman scraping Turnips).