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Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin
(1699-1779)
Chardin, Jean-Baptiste-Siméon
(1699-1779).
French painter, one of the
greatest of the 18th century, whose genre and still life subjects documented
the life of the Paris bourgeoisie.
He favored simple still lifes and unsentimental
domestic interiors. His muted tones and ability to evoke textures are seen in
Benediction and
Return from Market
(Louvre) and
Blowing Bubbles and
Mme Chardin (Metropolitan Museum).
His unusual abstract compositions had
great influence.
Chardin was born in Paris, November 2, 1699, the son of a cabinetmaker.
Largely self-taught, he was strongly influenced by 17th-century Low Country
masters such as Metsu and
de Hooch.
Like them, he devoted himself to simple
subjects and common themes. His lifelong work in this style contrasted
sharply with the heroic historical subjects and lighthearted rococo scenes
that constituted the mainstream of art during the mid-18th century.
Chardin was admitted to the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in 1728
on the basis of two early still lifes,
The Skate and
The Buffet
(both 1728, Louvre, Paris).
In the 1730s, he began to paint scenes of everyday life in
bourgeois Paris, among them
Lady Sealing a Letter
(1733, former State Museums, Berlin),
Scouring Maid (1738, Hunterian Museum, Glasgow, Scotland), and
The Benediction (1740, Louvre).
Characterized by subdued colors and
mellow lighting, these works celebrate the beauty of their commonplace
subjects and project an aura of humanity, intimacy, and honest domesticity.
Chardin's technical skill gave his paintings an uncannily realistic texture.
He rendered forms by means of light by using thick, layered brushstrokes and
thin, luminous glazes. Called the grand magician by critics, he achieved a
mastery in these areas unequaled by any other 18th-century painter.
Chardin's early support came from aristocratic patrons, including King Louis
XV. He later gained a wider popularity when engraved copies of his works
were produced. He turned to pastels in later life when his eyesight began to
fail. Unappreciated at the time, these pastels are now highly valued.
Chardin died in Paris, December 6, 1779.
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