The Silver Goblet (c.1728)

Jean Siméon Chardin prints bring the calm of an 18th-century French kitchen and household into your home. Chardin was a master of still life and of quiet scenes of everyday life, painting copper pots, fruit, children at play and servants at work with soft light and a rich, grainy surface. Our collection of fine art prints covers his still lifes, kitchen and family scenes, and late pastel portraits.

About Jean Siméon Chardin

Jean Siméon Chardin was born in Paris on 2 November 1699, the son of a cabinetmaker, and rarely left the city. He trained with the history painters Pierre-Jacques Cazes and Noël-Nicolas Coypel and became a master in the Académie de Saint-Luc in 1724. In 1728 he presented The Ray and The Buffet and was admitted to the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture.

His early years were hard. He married Marguerite Saintard in 1731, but she died in 1735 and their daughter soon after. Engravings of his genre paintings brought him a wider public, and a second marriage, to Françoise-Marguerite Pouget in 1744, improved his finances. From 1737 he showed regularly at the Salon, and he served the Academy for fifty years as counsellor, treasurer and secretary, arranging the Salon displays from 1761.

Louis XV granted him a pension in 1752 and rooms in the Louvre in 1757. The writer Denis Diderot became his great champion. In the 1770s, as his eyesight weakened, he turned to pastels and made portraits of himself and his wife that are now highly prized. His son, also a painter, drowned in Venice in 1772. Chardin died in Paris on 6 December 1779.

Style and Subjects

Chardin worked slowly and painted only a little over 200 pictures. At a time when grand history painting was most admired and Rococo charm was in fashion, he chose humble subjects: a copper pot, a few eggs, a jar of apricots, a maid resting, a child blowing bubbles. He learned much from the Dutch and Flemish painters of the previous century.

His pictures are carefully balanced, with soft, diffused light and thick, textured paint. They feel calm and honest rather than sentimental. He put it simply himself: "One employs colours, but one paints with feeling."

Famous Works

• The Ray (1728), Louvre, Paris. A gutted ray hangs above a table, one of the two paintings that won him entry to the Academy.
• The Silver Tureen (c. 1728–30), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. A gleaming tureen with game and fruit, from his early still lifes.
• Soap Bubbles (c. 1733–34), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. A young man blows a bubble from a window ledge, a gentle reminder of how fleeting life is.
• The House of Cards (c. 1737–40), National Gallery, London. A boy builds a tower of cards, a subject he painted at least four times.
• Boy with a Spinning-Top (1738), Louvre, Paris. A schoolboy absorbed in watching his top, painted without sentimentality.
• The Kitchen Maid (1738), National Gallery of Art, Washington. A maid pauses over her vegetables in a quiet moment.
• The Attentive Nurse (1747), National Gallery of Art, Washington. A woman prepares an egg for an invalid, an ordinary act of care.
• Still Life with Peaches, a Silver Goblet, Grapes and Walnuts (1759), J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. A late still life of simple fruit and silver.

Decorating with Chardin Prints

Chardin's still lifes were made for kitchens and dining rooms. Jar of Apricots or Le Melon looks at home above a sideboard or in a breakfast nook, and his warm browns and soft whites suit farmhouse, French country and modern rustic interiors alike.

The scenes of children and household life, such as Soap Bubbles or The House of Cards, suit a family room, study or bedroom. His pastel self-portraits make a thoughtful addition to a library or reading corner.

FAQ

What art movement was Chardin part of?

Chardin worked during the Rococo period but had little in common with its style. He is seen as a master of still life and genre painting in the tradition of the Dutch and Flemish painters.

What is Chardin's most famous painting?

The Ray (1728) is his most famous still life, and Soap Bubbles, The House of Cards and Boy with a Spinning-Top are among his best-known scenes of everyday life.

Why did Chardin paint so many versions of the same picture?

His genre scenes were popular, and he painted replicas of nearly all of them, often almost impossible to tell apart. Engravings after them also spread his fame.

Where can I see Chardin's paintings?

The Louvre has the largest collection. Others are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery in London, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the Hermitage and the Getty Museum.

Did Chardin work in pastel?

Yes. When his eyesight weakened in the 1770s he turned to pastel, making portraits of himself and his wife that are now highly valued.

Related Artists

• Jean-Baptiste Greuze: French painter of family scenes in the generation after Chardin
• Jean-Baptiste Oudry: French still-life and animal painter of the same era
• François Boucher: the leading Rococo painter of his day, a contrast to Chardin's quiet style
• Willem Kalf: Dutch still-life painter of the kind of tradition Chardin learned from