Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin was an artist of the early 18th century. At this time the predominant form of art was Rococo, mostly associated with merriment and pleasure. Paintings of elegant carnivals, erotic nudity and romantic trysts were abundant, while reality seemed all but absent from the world of art, which is precisely what makes Chardin’s works stand out among the rest of the eighteenth century. His still-lifes are plain and unembellished, and depict the real world that he saw around him, rather than a Rococo fantasy. Chardin was born in 1699 in Paris to the family of a master-carpenter. He lived his entire life in the district of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, where he was also christened at the Church of Saint-Sulpice.
1775. Pastel on paper. 46 x 38 cm. Louvre, Paris, France.
c.1721-25. Oil on canvas. 55 x 82.5 cm. Musée Carnavalet, Paris, France.
1725-26. Oil on canvas. 114 x 146 cm. Louvre, Paris, France.
c.1728. Oil on canvas. 55 x 40 cm. Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe, Germany.
1728. Oil on canvas. 194 x 129 cm. Louvre, Paris, France.
1728-30. Oil on canvas. 81 x 65 cm. Louvre, Paris, France.
1728-30. Oil on canvas. 80.5 x 64.5 cm. Musee de la Chasse et de la Nature, Paris, France.
1731. Oil on canvas. 141 x 219.5 cm. Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris, France.
1731. Oil on canvas. 33 x 41 cm. Louvre, Paris, France.
c. 1731. Oil on canvas. 32 x 39 cm. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK.
1731. Oil on canvas. 33 x 43 cm. Louvre, Paris, France.
1733. Oil on canvas. 146 x 147 cm, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, Germany.
1733. Oil on panel. 38 x 45 cm. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden.
1733. Oil on canvas. 37.5 x 42.5 cm. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden.
1733-5. Oil on canvas. 93 x 74.5 cm. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, USA.
c.1734. Oil on panel. 12 x 21 cm. Louvre, Paris, France.
c.1734. Oil on panel. 28.5 x 23 cm. Louvre, Paris, France.
1734. Oil on canvas. 138 x 105 cm. Louvre, Paris, France.
c.1734-35. Oil on canvas. 67.5 x 74.5 cm. Louvre, Paris, France.
1735. Oil on canvas. 80 x 101 cm. Hunterian Art Gallery, Glasgow, UK.
Chardin by Pierre Rosenberg. Yale University Press, 2000.
The Age of Watteau, Chardin, and Fragonard: Masterpieces of French Genre Painting by Colin B. Bailey, Philip Conisbee, Thomas W. Gaehtgens. Yale University Press, 2003.
Boucher and Chardin: Masters of Modern Manners by Anne Delau. Paul Holberton Pub, 2008.
Chardin by Marianne Roland Michel. Harry N. Abrams, 1996.
Jean Simeon Chardin 1699-1779 by Dorit Hempelmann, Margaret Klinge-Gross. Hatje Cantz, 1999.