There are often conflicting accounts associated with legends, and Baker’s La Belle is no exception. While there is clear evidence that Henry Pierce drew on Liotard’s pastel in creating Baker’s famous trademark, verifying who La Belle was and how she came to be the subject of Liotard’s work in the first place is another matter entirely. Contradictory stories revolve around the origin of the beautiful chocolate girl, and Henry Pierce might also have presented an embellished version to make the image more marketable.

The story of La Belle promoted by Baker’s involves Anna Baldauf, a young woman from Vienna, Austria. Legend has it that she was the daughter of Melchior Baldauf, a knight living in Vienna during the 1760s. Anna may or may not have earned her living as a chocolate server, but the story claims that a Prince Dietrichstein entered a chocolate shop on a cold day and noticed her beauty. They fell in love and soon married, despite their different social classes. Liotard was traveling through the city drawing portraits of Austrian royalty when Dietrichstein asked him to capture Anna’s likeness as a wedding gift.

As romantic as this tale sounds, there are some problematic discrepancies. Other versions of the legend place Liotard in Vienna in 1745 long before Prince Dietrichstein was born. Indeed, written documents show Count Algarotti, an art buyer, purchasing the piece in Venice, Italy on February 3, 1745. He bought the pastel, titled “Stoubenmenche” (possibly “Stubenmädchen” or chambermaid), describing it as “from the famous Liotard a pastel of about three feet high...which represents a young German chambermaid carrying a tray on which is a glass of water and a cup of chocolate.” Algarotti bought the piece on behalf of Augustus of Saxony, the King of Poland, who hung it in the Dresden Gallery. It has remained there ever since, except for a period during World War II when it was removed for safe keeping.

The Dresden Gallery provides additional details suggesting the existence of two women by the name of Anna Baldauf, living fifty years apart. The 1965 Schäfer guidebook for the Dresden Royal Portrait Collection states, “She was born around 1730 in Vienna, was named Anna Baldauf, and was famous as the ‘beautiful nursemaid.’ But she is not to be confused with the Viennese Anna Baldauf who was married to Prince Johann Baptista Karl Walther von Dietrichstein on July 23, 1802.”