If you have ever wanted to stitch a face that actually looks back at you, Chaplin is where I'd send you. He built a whole career on portraits of young women, and there is a softness in them that survives being broken down into squares of floss.
Charles Joshua Chaplin was born in 1825 and died in 1891, a French painter and engraver who trained under Michel Martin Drolling. He moved between oil, pastel, watercolor, chalk, lithography and etching, which tells you something about how restless he was. Portraits and genre scenes were his territory, and the elegant young women he painted are what his name still carries.
Of the twelve designs I have charted from his work, most sit at Level 4 - Challenging. That means real commitment on 18-count Aida, with the skin tones and hair doing most of the heavy lifting. Girl Reading and The Letter are good entry points at that level, both quiet single-figure pieces where you can settle into the shading without fighting a busy background. La Fille Du Peintre (Daughter of the Painter) is another I'm fond of. Then there are three at Level 5 - Big League: Blowing Bubbles, Her Favourite Dog and The Coy Look. Those are not weekend projects. Doves and dogs turn up more than once in these charts, so if you like an animal in the frame you have options. Framed on a wall, these portrait cross stitch pieces hold a room the way the paintings were meant to.
When you're done here, look at Louise Abbema. She was taught by Chaplin and worked the same portrait territory, and I have three of her paintings charted as counted cross stitch patterns. Stitching teacher and student back to back is one of my favorite things to recommend, because you start noticing what got passed down and what she did entirely her own way.
And if the painting itself is what you're after rather than the needle, there are Charles Joshua Chaplin art prints available.
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