Still Life with a White Mug

c. 1764

Jean Siméon Chardin

Painter, French, 1699 - 1779

Three apples and two pears sit next to a knife and a luminous, white mug on a tan, stone surface before a muted, olive-green background in this horizontal still life painting. The objects and background are painted with blended strokes, giving the painting a soft, glowing appearance. At the center of the ledge or table, the apples are dappled with candy red and pale yellow. Two golden and moss-green pears are to our left, one upright and the other lying with its stem coming toward us. The fruit is painted with white highlights from a light source to our left. The cream-white mug sits next to the apples to our right. The mug has straight sides, a low band near the top and bottom, and the handle curves out to our right. Between the apples and mug, the black handle of a knife angles to our right, off the edge of the table. Shadows are painted in brick red on the surface of the table, which extends off both sides of the canvas. There is a vertical seam in the table under the upright pear.

Media Options

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On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 53

Artwork overview

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Baron de Saint-Julien;[1] (his sale, Hôtel de Bullion, Paris, 21 June 1784 and days following, no. 69 [a pair of Chardin still lifes]); Dulac. Peter Adolf Hall [1739-1793], Paris; by inheritance in his family to Mme. Lucie Ditte de Montgomery [1861-1926] Paris, a descendant of his daughter Lucie; (sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 13 March 1922, no. 9);[2] (Wildenstein & Co., Inc., Paris, New York, and London); sold 12 August 1925 to (Kunsthandel AG, Lucerne and Paul Cassirer, Amsterdam);[3] sold 22 January 1929 to (Wildenstein & Co., Inc, Paris, New York, and London); sold by 1933 to William R. [1866-1949] and Lillian S. [1881-1959] Timken, New York; (Paul Drey, New York); purchased May 1937 by W. Averell [1891-1986] and Marie N.[1903-1970] Harriman, New York;[4] W. Averell Harriman Foundation, New York; gift 1972 to NGA.
[1] The title page of the 1874 sale catalogue reads "...Cabinet de M. le Baron de Saint J***," and the seller is further identified by hand-written annotations to the title page and by Frits Lugt as Baron de Saint J[ulien]. Although two Saint-Juliens have been confused in the literature, the owner of the Chardin was probably François-David Bollioud, seigneur de Saint-Julien (1713-c. 1789), the receveur général du clergé. His residence in Paris became the Hôtel de Lannoy (site of famous interior decorations commissioned in 1798 from Pierre-Paul Prud'hon), and he also had constructed the Château de Fontaine-Française near Dijon, which was built over four years from 1754 to 1758 on the site of an old fortress that was owned by the woman he married in 1748, Anne-Madeleine de la Tour du Pin. See John Ingamells, The Wallace Collection: Catalogue of Pictures. III: French before 1815, London, 1989: P430, 161-165.
[2] The second of Hall's four children was Angélique Lucie Hall (1774-1819), known as Lucie. Her daughter from her first marriage, Lucie Garnier [b. 1793], married Charles-Honoré Ditte. Lucie and Charles Ditte's granddaughter, a third Lucie (daughter of their son, Henri Ditte), married in 1884 "George de Pembroke, Lord Montgomery," who has not yet been identified among the earls of Pembroke and Montgomery. Although the catalogue for the 1922 sale in which the NGA Chardin appeared describes her as "Madame Ditte, née de Montgomery," she was actually Madame de Montgomery, née Ditte, an author and poet. See Régine de Plinval de Guillebon, Pierre Adolphe Hall, 1739-1793, Miniaturiste suédois, Peintre du Roi et des Enfants de France, Paris, 2000: 26, 42, 65, 93, 161.
[3] See index cards K 175 25 and L 05715 from the Julius Böhler Archiv at the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Munich, digitized at http://boehler.zikg.eu/wisski/navigate/259245/view; copies in NGA curatorial file. Although the original title on card no. L 05715 referring to this painting has been struck through and the the title of its pendant written in, the ZI has compared the linked index cards and associated photograph portfolio to confirm this index card relates to the NGA painting rather than its pendant. Information about the 1925 purchase by the Kunsthandel AG (a firm with ties to the Julius Böhler gallery in Munich) and Cassirer, Amsterdam, which owned the painting jointly (50/50), as well as the sale back to Wildenstein in 1929, as indicated in the Böhler Archiv records, was kindly provided by Dr. Theresa Sepp of the ZI in emails of 1 March and 14 April 2023 (copy in NGA curatorial file).
[4] According to Harriman collection records in NGA curatorial files. The painting was published in a 1933 reference as belonging to the Timkens.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1907

  • Exposition Chardin et Fragonard, Galeries Georges Petit, Paris, 1907, no. 6.

1935

  • French Painting and Sculpture of the XVIII Century, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1935-1936, no. 25, repro.

1936

  • Chardin and the Modern Still Life, Marie Harriman Gallery, New York, 1936.

1938

  • The Painters of Still Life, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, 1938, no. 53, repro.

1955

  • Contemporary French Paintings from the Collection of Governor and Mrs. Averell Harriman, Albany Institute of History and Art, 1955, no cat.

1956

  • Pictures Collected by Yale Alumni, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, 1956, no. 21, repro.

1957

  • Trends in Painting 1600-1800, Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo, 1957, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

1958

  • Paintings from Private Collections, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1958, no catalogue.

1961

  • Exhibition of the Marie and Averell Harriman Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1961, unnumbered catalogue, repro. 9.

1974

  • Loan for display with permanent collection, Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, 1974-1976.

1982

  • Fragonard and His Friends: Changing Ideals in Eighteenth Century Art, Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida, 1982-1983, no. 30, repro.

Bibliography

1907

  • Dayot, Armand, and Jean Guiffrey. J.-B. Siméon Chardin, avec un catalogue complete de l'oeuvre du maître par Jean Guiffrey. Paris, 1907: 75, no. 110.

  • Guiffrey, Jules. "L'exposition Chardin-Fragonard." Revue de l'Art 22, pt. 2 (July-December 1907): 102.

1911

  • Furst, Herbert Ernest Augustus. Chardin. London, 1911: 123.

1933

  • Wildenstein, Georges. Chardin. Paris, 1933: 218, no. 837, pl. 87, fig. 118.

1963

  • Wildenstein, Georges. Chardin. Zurich, 1963: 192-193, no. 248, fig. 118.

1969

  • Wildenstein, Georges. Chardin: catalogue raisonné. Revised by Daniel Wildenstein; translated by Stuart Gilbert. Oxford, 1969: 200-201, no. 248, fig. 118.

1970

  • Watson, Francis. "Dix-huitième masters of cuisines. Chardin stands at the beginning of modern painting." Times Literary Supplement (14 May 1970): 537, 538.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 68, repro.

1983

  • Rosenberg, Pierre. L'opera completa di Chardin. Milan, 1983: no. 169, repro.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 323, no. 424, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 87, repro.

1994

  • Roland Michel, Marianne. Chardin. Paris, 1994: 178.

1999

  • Rosenberg, Pierre, and Renaud Temperini. Chardin. Paris, 1999: 139, 141, 274, no. 170.

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., Inc., 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. 18, 92-95, color repro.

Inscriptions

On stretcher: two labels for "W.S. BUDW [ORTH & SON] / PACKERS AND SHIPPERS OF [WORKS OF ART] /424 West 52nd St., New York [NY] / TITLE Chardin from / ARTIST Harriman / ADDRESS 16 e. 81."; two labels for "ALLIED/ VAN / LINES/ 38," "ALLIED 199"; circular cutoms (?) stamp, 3.2 cm diam.,illegible; square perforated stam 1.8 cm with "26"; written on stretcher: "Lined."

Wikidata ID

Q20178264

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