Fruit, Jug, and a Glass

c. 1726/1728

Jean Siméon Chardin

Painter, French, 1699 - 1779

Light from the upper left falls across a glass, a pitcher, peaches in a basket, and other fruit arranged along a brown tabletop or ledge in this horizontal still life painting. The arrangement fills the height and width of the composition, and the table and most of the back wall are mottled with pecan brown and fern green. The background along the left edge of the composition is in deep shadow behind a translucent, wide-mouthed glass. Thin streaks of pale pink and white create reflections in the glass, and a brown hazelnut sits next to it. Moving right and a little farther back on the table, a tall, cinnamon-brown jug is turned so its handle faces us. A low, woven basket piled with at least six peaches sits next to the jug, filling most of the right half of the painting. The basket is lined with pine-green leaves, and the peaches have butter-yellow highlights. Three pieces of fruit sit on the table in front of the basket and jug: two small, frosty green, round pieces are connected by a shared stem and the larger, third piece of fruit is plum purple.

Media Options

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On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 53

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Chester Dale Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 33.5 x 43 cm (13 3/16 x 16 15/16 in.)
    framed: 49.5 x 59.4 x 7.6 cm (19 1/2 x 23 3/8 x 3 in.)

  • Accession

    1943.7.4

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Marquis de Biron, Paris and Château de Biron, Monpazier;[1] sold 1926 to (Wildenstein & Co., Inc., Paris, New York, and London); sold 19 November 1927 or 1929 to Chester Dale [1883-1962], New York;[2] gift 1943 to NGA.
[1] This "marquis de Biron" was possibly Guillaume de Gontaut Biron, marquis de Biron (1859-1939); see Les donateurs du Louvre, Paris, 1989: 220, and Georges Martin, Histoire et généalogie des maisons de Gontaut Biron et D'Hautefort, Lyon, 1995: 60. However, in a letter dated 3 December 1995 (in NGA curatorial files), the then-marquis de Gontaut-Biron says there is no family record or memory of paintings by Chardin in his ancestor's collection and gives a death date of 1936.
[2] The Chester Dale records (copy in NGA curatorial files) give 1927 as the year of purchase. Joseph Baillio of Wildenstein, in a letter of 8 November 1995 to Eik Kahng (in NGA curatorial files), gives the year as 1929, and also provides the year that Wildenstein acquired the painting.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1926

  • Exhibition of Paintings by J.-B. S. Chardin, Wildenstein Galleries, New York, 1926, no. 12, repro.

1930

  • "La Nature Morte" from Chardin to the Abstract, Wildenstein Galleries, New York, 1930, no. 1.

1965

  • The Chester Dale Bequest, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1965, no cat.

Bibliography

1930

  • "Still Life 'From Chardin to the Abstract' Revealed in Show." Art Digest 4 (15 January 1930):11, repro.

1933

  • Wildenstein, Georges. Chardin. Paris, 1933: no. 798, repro. pl. LXXXII, no. 108.

1942

  • Jewell, Edward Alden. "The National Gallery's New Riches: An Additional Selection of Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection on Loan." The New York Times (22 February 1942): repro.

  • French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 15, repro., as Still Life.

1943

  • Washington Times-Herald (18 July 1943): C-10.

  • Mechlin, Leila. "National Gallery Gets New Gifts from Chester Dale." Washington Sunday Star (11 July 1943):

1944

  • French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1944: 15, repro., as Still Life.

1948

  • Wildenstein and Company. French XVIII Century Paintings. New York, 1948: 4.

1949

  • Jourdain, Francis. Chardin. Paris, 1949: repro. 56.

1950

  • Denvir, Bernard. Chardin. New York, 1950: pl. 28.

1953

  • French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1953: 21, repro., as Still Life.

1956

  • Einstein, Lewis. "Looking at French Eighteenth Century Pictures in Washington." Gazette des Beaux-Arts 6th ser., 47, no. 1048-1049 (May-June 1956): 234.

1963

  • Wildenstein, Georges. Chardin. Zurich, 1963: no. 287, fig. 136.

  • Rosenberg, Pierre. Chardin: Biographical and Critical Study. Translated by Helga Harrison. Lausanne, 1963: 41, repro.

1965

  • Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Paintings & Sculpture of the French School in the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 21, repro., as Still Life.

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 26, as Still Life.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 20, repro.

1969

  • Wildenstein, Georges. Chardin: catalogue raisonné. Revised by Daniel Wildenstein; translated by Stuart Gilbert. Oxford, 1969: 208-209, no. 287, repro.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 66, repro., as Still Life.

1983

  • Rosenberg, Pierre. L'opera completa di Chardin. Milan, 1983: no. 22, repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 86, repro.

1995

  • Martinez, Benjamin, and Jacqueline Block. Visual Forces: An Introduction to Design. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1995: 22, repro. 23B.

1999

  • Rosenberg, Pierre, and Renaud Temperini. Chardin. Paris, 1999: 36, 40, 198-199, no. 23, 35, repro.

  • Minor, Vernon Hyde. Baroque and Rococo Art and Culture. New York, 1999: 253, repro.

  • Cros, Philippe. Chardin. Paris, 1999: 24, repro.

2005

  • Baillio, Joseph, et al. The Arts of France from François Ier to Napoléon Ier. A Centennial Celebration of Wildenstein's Presence in New York. Exh. cat. Wildenstein & Co., New York, 2005: 78 (not in the exhibition).

2009

  • Conisbee, Philip, et al. French Paintings of the Fifteenth through the Eighteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2009: no. 11, 59-62, color repro.

Inscriptions

On stretcher: small label, adhered to red cardboard and encapsulated with plastic, "36g/D/X"

Wikidata ID

Q20177825

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