Description

Jean Siméon Chardin won acclaim for the still lifes and quiet scenes of middle-class domestic life that he exhibited at salons sponsored by the French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. In early still lifes like this one, he incorporated motifs common to 17th-century Dutch and Flemish works: the foreshortened knife, the handle of which protrudes over the table’s edge; the overturned glass; and the remains of a meal. The work’s unusual shape reveals its original function as a screen for the opening of a fireplace. Viewed at floor level, the screen would have conveyed the illusion of a table recessed into the fireplace.

Provenance

Probably Alexandre Gabriel Descamps, Paris; sold Hôtel des Ventes Mobilières, Paris 21 April 1853, no. 28 as Nature morte for Fr 600. Sold Hôtel des Commissaires-Priseurs, Paris, 20-21 December 1858, no. 40. Laurent Laperlier, Paris, by 1860, to at least 1865 [see Bürger 1860, Lejeune 1864, and Blanc 1865]. Léon Michel-Lévy, Paris by 1907; sold, Galerie Georges Petit, 17-18 June 1925, no. 125, to Wildenstein for Fr 202,000 [see Ricci, 1925]. David David-Weill, Paris by 1926 [see Henriot 1926 cat. of David-Weill collection]; David-Weill collection on deposit at Wildenstein & Co., New York, by January 1938 [Joseph Baillio letter to Susan Wise, 11 December 1987]; acquired by the Art Institute from David-Weill through the agency of Wildenstein & Co., 19 November 1944.

The White Tablecloth

Jean Siméon Chardin

c. 1731–32

Accession Number

51577

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

96.8 × 123.5 cm (38 1/8 × 48 5/16 in.); Framed: 126.7 × 154.4 × 14 cm (49 7/8 × 60 3/4 × 5 1/2 in.)

Classification

oil on canvas

Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Credit Line

Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Memorial Collection