Jean Siméon Chardin (; November 2, 1699 – December 6, 1779) was an 18th-century French painter. He is considered a master of still life, and is also noted for his

genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...

paintings which depict kitchen maids, children, and domestic activities. Carefully balanced composition, soft diffusion of light, and granular

impasto ''Impasto'' is a technique used in painting, where paint is laid on an area of the surface thickly, usually thick enough that the brush or painting-knife strokes are visible. Paint can also be mixed right on the canvas. When dry, impasto provide ...

characterize his work.

Life

Chardin was born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, the son of a cabinetmaker, and rarely left the city. He lived on the

Left Bank In geography, a bank is the land alongside a body of water. Different structures are referred to as ''banks'' in different fields of geography, as follows. In limnology (the study of inland waters), a stream bank or river bank is the terra ...

near Saint-Sulpice until 1757, when

Louis XV Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached ...

granted him a studio and living quarters in the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

. Chardin entered into a marriage contract with Marguerite Saintard in 1723, whom he did not marry until 1731.Rosenberg p. 179. He served apprenticeships with the history painters Pierre-Jacques Cazes and

Noël-Nicolas Coypel Noël-Nicolas Coypel (17 November 1690 – 14 December 1734) was a popular French artist. The son of Noël Coypel and half-brother to the more-famous painter Antoine Coypel Antoine Coypel (11 April 16617 January 1722) was a French pain ...

, and in 1724 became a master in the

Académie de Saint-Luc The Académie de Saint-Luc was the guild of painters and sculptors set up in Paris in 1391, and dissolved in 1776.Alfred Fierro (1996). ''Histoire et Dictionnaire de Paris''. Paris: Robert Laffont. It was set up by the Provost of Paris in 1391, a ...

. 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" (held eight days after the regular one) on the

Place Dauphine The Place Dauphine is a public square located near the western end of the Île de la Cité in the first arrondissement of Paris. It was initiated by Henry IV in 1607, the second of his projects for public squares in Paris, the first being the P ...

(by the

Pont Neuf The Pont Neuf (, "New Bridge") is the oldest standing bridge across the river Seine in Paris, France. It stands by the western (downstream) point of the Île de la Cité, the island in the middle of the river that was, between 250 and 225 BC ...

Van Loo Van Loo is a Dutch toponymic surname, meaning "from the forest clearing". People with this surname include: ;A family of painters : * Jacob van Loo (1614–1670), Dutch painter * Louis-Abraham van Loo (1653-1712), Dutch-born French painter, son ...

, passing by in 1720, bought it and later assisted the young painter. Upon presentation of ''

The Ray The Ray is the name of four superheroes in the DC Comics Universe. All versions of the character have the superpower of manipulating visible light in some manner. The first Ray was Langford "Happy" Terrill, a Quality Comics character. When D ...

'' and ''

The Buffet ''The Buffet'' is the thirteenth studio album by American R&B singer-songwriter R. Kelly. It was released on December 11, 2015, by RCA Records. The album features guest appearances from Lil Wayne, Jhene Aiko, Ty Dolla Sign, Jeremih, Juicy J, W ...

'' in 1728, he was admitted to the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture. The following year he ceded his position in the Académie de Saint-Luc. He made a modest living by "produc ngpaintings in the various genres at whatever price his customers chose to pay him",Rosenberg and Bruyant, p. 56. and by such work as the restoration of the frescoes at the Galerie François I at Fontainebleau in 1731. In November 1731 his son Jean-Pierre was baptized, and a daughter, Marguerite-Agnès, was baptized in 1733. In 1735 his wife Marguerite died, and within two years Marguerite-Agnès had died as well. Beginning in 1737 Chardin exhibited regularly at the Salon. He would prove to be a "dedicated academician", regularly attending meetings for fifty years, and functioning successively as counsellor, treasurer, and secretary, overseeing in 1761 the installation of Salon exhibitions. Jean-Baptiste Siméon Chardin 021

Chardin's work gained popularity through reproductive engravings of his

paintings (made by artists such as François-Bernard Lépicié and P.-L. Sugurue), which brought Chardin income in the form of "what would now be called royalties". In 1744 he entered his second marriage, this time to Françoise-Marguerite Pouget. The union brought a substantial improvement in Chardin's financial circumstances. In 1745 a daughter, Angélique-Françoise, was born, but she died in 1746. In 1752 Chardin was granted a pension of 500

livres The (; ; abbreviation: ₶.) was one of numerous currencies used in medieval France, and a unit of account (i.e., a monetary unit used in accounting) used in Early Modern France. The 1262 monetary reform established the as 20 , or 80.88 gr ...

by Louis XV. In 1756 Chardin returned to the subject of the still life. At the Salon of 1759 he exhibited nine paintings; it was the first Salon to be commented upon by

Denis Diderot Denis Diderot (; ; 5 October 171331 July 1784) was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer, best known for serving as co-founder, chief editor, and contributor to the '' Encyclopédie'' along with Jean le Rond d'Alembert. He was a promi ...

, who would prove to be a great admirer and public champion of Chardin's work. Beginning in 1761, his responsibilities on behalf of the Salon, simultaneously arranging the exhibitions and acting as treasurer, resulted in a diminution of productivity in painting, and the showing of 'replicas' of previous works.Rosenberg, p.183. In 1763 his services to the Académie were acknowledged with an extra 200 livres in pension. In 1765 he was unanimously elected associate member of the Académie des Sciences, Belles-Lettres et Arts of Rouen, but there is no evidence that he left Paris to accept the honor. By 1770 Chardin was the 'Premier peintre du roi', and his pension of 1,400 livres was the highest in the academy.Rosenberg, p.184. In the 1770s his eyesight weakened and he took to painting in

pastels A pastel () is an art medium in a variety of forms including a stick, a square a pebble or a pan of color; though other forms are possible; they consist of powdered pigment and a binder. The pigments used in pastels are similar to those use ...

, a medium in which he executed portraits of his wife and himself (see ''Self-portrait'' at top right). His works in pastels are now highly valued. In 1772 Chardin's son, also a painter, drowned in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

, a probable suicide. The artist's last known oil painting was dated 1776; his final Salon participation was in 1779, and featured several pastel studies. Gravely ill by November of that year, he died in Paris on December 6, at the age of 80.

Work

Jean-Siméon Chardin - Jar of Apricots - Google Art Project

Chardin worked very slowly and painted only slightly more than 200 pictures (about four a year) in total. Chardin's work had little in common with the

Rococo painting Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...

that dominated French art in the 18th century. At a time when history painting was considered the supreme classification for public art, Chardin's subjects of choice were viewed as minor categories. He favored simple yet beautifully textured still lifes, and sensitively handled domestic interiors and

genre paintings Genre painting (or petit genre), a form of genre art, depicts aspects of everyday life by portraying ordinary people engaged in common activities. One common definition of a genre scene is that it shows figures to whom no identity can be attached ...

. Simple, even stark, paintings of common household items (''Still Life with a Smoker's Box'') and an uncanny ability to portray children's innocence in an unsentimental manner (''Boy with a Top'' ight nevertheless found an appreciative audience in his time, and account for his timeless appeal. Largely self-taught, Chardin was greatly influenced by the realism and subject matter of the 17th-century Low Country masters. Despite his unconventional portrayal of the ascendant bourgeoisie, early support came from patrons in the French aristocracy, including Louis XV. Though his popularity rested initially on paintings of animals and fruit, by the 1730s he introduced kitchen utensils into his work (''The Copper Cistern'', ca. 1735, Louvre). Soon figures populated his scenes as well, supposedly in response to a portrait painter who challenged him to take up the genre. ''Woman Sealing a Letter'' (ca. 1733), which may have been his first attempt, was followed by half-length compositions of children saying grace, as in ''

Le Bénédicité ''Saying Grace'' or ''The Prayer Before a Meal'' (french: Le Bénédicité) is the title of several paintings by French artist Jean Simeon Chardin, one of which was given as a gift to Louis XV. The subject of the painting, a middle-class French ...

'', and kitchen maids in moments of reflection. These humble scenes deal with simple, everyday activities, yet they also have functioned as a source of documentary information about a level of French society not hitherto considered a worthy subject for painting. The pictures are noteworthy for their formal structure and pictorial harmony. Chardin said about painting, "Who said one paints with colors? One ''employs'' colors, but one paints with ''feeling''." A child playing was a favourite subject of Chardin. He depicted an adolescent building a house of cards on at least four occasions. The version at

Waddesdon Manor Waddesdon Manor is a English country house, country house in the village of Waddesdon, in Buckinghamshire, England. Owned by National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, National Trust and managed by the Rothschild Foundation ...

is the most elaborate. Scenes such as these derived from 17th-century Netherlandish vanitas works, which bore messages about the transitory nature of human life and the worthlessness of material ambitions, but Chardin's also display a delight in the ephemeral phases of childhood for their own sake. Chardin frequently painted replicas of his compositions—especially his genre paintings, nearly all of which exist in multiple versions which in many cases are virtually indistinguishable. Beginning with ''The Governess'' (1739, in the

National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (french: Musée des beaux-arts du Canada), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the ...

, Ottawa), Chardin shifted his attention from working-class subjects to slightly more spacious scenes of bourgeois life. Chardin's extant paintings, which number about 200, are in many major museums, including the

Influence

Chardin's influence on the art of the modern era was wide-ranging and has been well-documented.

Édouard Manet Édouard Manet (, ; ; 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French modernist painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism. Bo ...

's half-length ''Boy Blowing Bubbles'' and the still lifes of

Paul Cézanne Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavour to a new and radically d ...

are equally indebted to their predecessor.Wilkin. He was one of

Henri Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a drawing, draughtsman, printmaking, printmaker, and sculptur ...

's most admired painters; as an art student Matisse made copies of four Chardin paintings in the

Chaïm Soutine Chaïm Soutine (13 January 1893 – 9 August 1943) was a Belarusian painter who made a major contribution to the expressionist movement while living and working in Paris. Inspired by classic painting in the European tradition, exemplified by the ...

's still lifes looked to Chardin for inspiration, as did the paintings of Georges Braque, and later,

Giorgio Morandi Giorgio Morandi (July 20, 1890 – June 18, 1964) was an Italian painter and printmaker who specialized in still life. His paintings are noted for their tonal subtlety in depicting simple subjects, which were limited mainly to vases, bottles, bo ...

. In 1999

Lucian Freud Lucian Michael Freud (; 8 December 1922 – 20 July 2011) was a British painter and draughtsman, specialising in figurative art, and is known as one of the foremost 20th-century English portraitists. He was born in Berlin, the son of Jewis ...

painted and etched several copies after ''The Young Schoolmistress'' ( National Gallery, London).Smee, Sebastian, ''Lucian Freud 1996-2005'', illustrated. Alfred A. Knopf, 2005. Marcel Proust, in the chapter "How to open your eyes?" from '' In Search of Lost Time'' (''À la recherche du temps perdu''), describes a melancholic young man sitting at his simple breakfast table. The only comfort he finds is in the imaginary ideas of beauty depicted in the great masterpieces of the Louvre, materializing fancy palaces, rich princes, and the like. The author tells the young man to follow him to another section of the Louvre where the pictures of Chardin are. There he would see the beauty in still life at home and in everyday activities like peeling turnips.

Gallery

File:Jean-Baptiste Siméon Chardin - Lapin mort et attirail de chasse.jpg, ''Dead Rabbit and Hunting Gear'' (ca. 1727), oil on canvas., 81 x 65 cm.,

File:Jean-Baptiste Siméon Chardin 007.jpg, ''

'' (1727), oil on canvas, 114.5 x 146 cm.,

Image:Jean-Baptiste Siméon Chardin 029.jpg, ''Glass Flask and Fruit'' (ca. 1728), oil on canvas, 55.7 x 46 cm.,

Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe The Staatliche Kunsthalle (State Art Gallery) is an art museum in Karlsruhe, Germany. The museum, created by architect Heinrich Hübsch, opened in 1846 after nine years of work in a neoclassical building next to the Karlsruhe Castle and the ...

File:Chardin - Les attributs des Sciences.jpg, ''The Attributes of Exploration'' (1731), oil on canvas, 141 x 219 cm.,

Musée Jacquemart-André The Musée Jacquemart-André ( en, Jacquemart-André Museum) is a private museum located at 158 Boulevard Haussmann in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. The museum was created from the private home of Édouard André (1833–1894) and Nélie Jacq ...

File:Jean Siméon Chardin - Sealing the Letter - WGA04745.jpg, ''Sealing the Letter'' (1733), oil on canvas, 146 x 147 cm.,

Schloss Charlottenburg Schloss Charlottenburg (Charlottenburg Palace) is a Baroque palace in Berlin, located in Charlottenburg, a district of the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf borough. The palace was built at the end of the 17th century and was greatly expanded during t ...

File:Soap Bubbles 1733-5 Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin.jpg, ''

Soap Bubbles A soap bubble is an extremely thin film of soap or detergent and water enclosing air that forms a hollow sphere with an iridescent surface. Soap bubbles usually last for only a few seconds before bursting, either on their own or on contact ...

'' (ca.1733-1734), oil on canvas, 93 x 74.6 cm., National Gallery of Art File:Jean Baptiste Simeon - The Drawing Lesson.jpg, ''The Drawing Lesson'' (ca. 1734), oil on canvas, 41 × 47 cm.,

Tokyo Fuji Art Museum was established by Daisaku Ikeda and opened near the Sōka University campus in Hachiōji, Tokyo, Japan, in 1983. The new wing was added in 2008. The collection of some thirty thousand works spans the arts and cultures of Japan, Asia, and Europ ...

File:Le Jeune Dessinateur.jpg, ''The Draftsman'' (1737), oil on canvas, 80 x 65 cm.,

Image:Jean-Baptiste Siméon Chardin 017.jpg, '' Woman Cleaning Turnips'' (ca. 1738), oil on canvas, 46.2 x 37 cm.,

Alte Pinakothek The Alte Pinakothek (, ''Old Pinakothek'') is an art museum located in the Kunstareal area in Munich, Germany. It is one of the oldest galleries in the world and houses a significant collection of Old Master paintings. The name Alte (Old) Pi ...

File:Chardin - The Return from the Market, 1738.jpg, ''The Return from the Market'' (1738–39), oil on canvas, 47 x 38 cm.,

File:Jean Siméon Chardin - La Gouvernante (The Governess) - WGA04762.jpg, ''The Governess'' (1739), oil on canvas, 47 x 38 cm.,

File:Chardin, Jean Siméon - Godefroy, Auguste Gabriel - Museu de Arte de São Paulo - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Portrait of Auguste Gabriel Godefroy'' (1741), oil on canvas, 64.5 x 76.5 cm.,

São Paulo Museum of Art The São Paulo Museum of Art ( pt, Museu de Arte de São Paulo, or ') is an art museum located on Paulista Avenue in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. It is well known for its headquarters, a 1968 concrete and glass structure designed by Lina Bo ...

File:Jean Siméon Chardin - The Prayer before Meal - WGA04770.jpg, ''Saying Grace'' (1744), oil on canvas, 50 x 38 cm.,

Hermitage Museum The State Hermitage Museum ( rus, Государственный Эрмитаж, r=Gosudarstvennyj Ermitaž, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj ɪrmʲɪˈtaʂ, links=no) is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is the largest ...

File:Jean Siméon Chardin, The Attentive Nurse, 1747, NGA 41649.jpg, ''The Attentive Nurse'' (1747), oil on canvas, 46.2 x 37 cm., National Gallery of Art File:Chardin, Jean-Siméon - The Good Education - Google Art Project.jpg, ''The Good Education'' (ca. 1753), oil on canvas, 43 x 47.3 cm., Museum of Fine Arts, Houston File:Chardin - LES DEBRIS D'UN DEJEUNER, 1763 vers (cropped).jpg, ''The Preparations of a Lunch'' (1756), oil on canvas, 38 × 46 cm., Musée des Beaux-Arts de Carcassonne File:Chardin - Wildenstein 1969, 297.png, ''A Basket of Wild Strawberries'' (ca, 1760), oil on canvas, 38 x 46 cm., private collection File:Jean Siméon Chardin - 'La Brioche' (Cake) - WGA04779.jpg, ''La Brioche'' (1763), oil on canvas, 47 x 56 cm.,

File:Chardin - Basket of Plums, 1765.jpg, ''Basket of Plums'' (1765), oil on canvas, 32.4 x 41.9 cm., Chrysler Museum of Art File:Chardin, Jean-Baptiste Siméon - Still Life with Attributes of the Arts - 1766.jpg, ''Still Life with Attributes of the Arts'' (1766), oil on canvas, 112 x 140.5 cm.,

File:Jean Siméon Chardin - Basket of Peaches, with Walnuts, Knife and Glass of Wine - WGA04783.jpg, ''Basket of Peaches, with Walnuts, Knife and Glass of Wine'' (1768), oil on canvas, 32 x 39 cm.,

File:Jean-Siméon Chardin (French - Still Life with Fish, Vegetables, Gougères, Pots, and Cruets on a Table - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Still Life with Fish and Vegetables'' (1769), oil on canvas, 68.6 x 58.4 cm.,

J. Paul Getty Museum The J. Paul Getty Museum, commonly referred to as the Getty, is an art museum in Los Angeles, California housed on two campuses: the Getty Center and Getty Villa. The Getty Center is located in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles and fea ...

Notes

References

ArtCyclopedia Artcyclopedia is an online database of museum-quality fine art founded by Canadian John Malyon. Information The Artcyclopedia only deals with art that can be viewed online, and indexes 2,300 art sites (from museums and galleries), with links to a ...

Jean-Baptiste Siméon Chardin
* * Rosenberg, Pierre (2000), ''Chardin''. Munich: Prestel. . * Rosenberg, Pierre, and Florence Bruyant (2000), ''Chardin''. London: Royal Academy of Arts. .

External links

Chardin exhibition
at the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

Getty Museum: Chardin

WebMuseum: Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin

Jean-Baptiste-Simeon-Chardin.org
124 works by Jean Siméon Chardin.

* ttp://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/c/chardin/index.html Web Gallery of Art: Chardin
Neil Jeffares, ''Dictionary of pastellists before 1800'', online editionChardin, ''Boy Building a House of Cards'' at Waddesdon Manor
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chardin, Jean Simeon 1699 births 1779 deaths 18th-century French painters French male painters Rococo painters French still life painters Waddesdon Manor 18th-century French male artists