The Little Schoolmistress

after 1740

Jean Siméon Chardin

Painter, French, 1699 - 1779

An older girl and a younger child, both with pale skin, bend toward each other as they look at a book spread open on a wooden cupboard in this nearly square painting. Shown from the hips up to our right, the girl leans over the cupboard with her body facing our left in profile. She looks at the child peering over the low ledge at the back of the cupboard with her head tilted slightly in that direction. The older girl has a straight, delicate nose, her smooth cheeks are flushed, and her rosy-red lips are pursed. Her brown hair is tucked under a bright white, ruffled cap encircled with a gold and cranberry-red ribbon. The long sleeves of the muted sapphire-blue dress seem to have been rolled back along the forearms to reveal cascading, white cuffs. A translucent white neckerchief, like a short, full scarf, is tucked into an ivory-white apron that also covers the flaring skirt. With both hands on the open book, she points to one page with a metal pointer like a knitting needle. Facing us, the smaller child looks at the book from behind the wood cupboard, eyes downcast, resting one forearm on the surface and pointing to a detail in the book. The child has delicate brows, a short, wide nose, and full raspberry-red lips are closed. The padded cap the child wears covers the ears and is loosely painted with a pattern of honey brown, silvery white, and slate blue. The nutmeg-brown sleeves are pushed back along the forearm and there are white cuffs or sleeves beneath. The cupboard has two diamond-shaped, iron-gray metal pulls in front. Light illuminating the pair from our left creates a greenish glow on the tawny-brown background behind them.

Media Options

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On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 53

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Andrew W. Mellon Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 58.3 x 74 cm (22 15/16 x 29 1/8 in.)
    framed: 80 x 95.9 x 11.4 cm (31 1/2 x 37 3/4 x 4 1/2 in.)

  • Accession

    1937.1.91

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Casimir Perrin, marquis de Cypierre [1783-1844], Paris; (his estate sale, at his residence by Thoré, Paris, 10 March 1845 and days following, no. 24). Albert, vicomte de Curel [1827-1908], Paris;[1] his heirs; (his estate sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 25 November 1918 [originally scheduled for 3 May 1918], no. 26 [misprinted in auction catalogue as 23]); (M. Knoedler & Co., London, New York, and Paris);[2] sold May 1919 to Frank D. [d. 1927] and Clara W. [d. 1949] Stout, Chicago; on consignment to (M. Knoedler & Co., New York);[3] purchased 28 December 1936 by The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh;[4] gift 1937 to NGA.
[1] The vicomte de Curel, at whose 1918 estate sale the NGA painting was sold, has been identified by François Auffret, Président of La Société des Amis de Jongkind in Paris (founded 1970), with confirmation from the collector's descendants. With M. Auffret's kind permission, his research was shared with the NGA by Dr. Diana Kostyrko (e-mails, October through December 2008, in NGA curatorial files).
[2] See the Knoedler envelope containing a statement by George Sortais about the signature on the painting in which he describes the painting as "acheté par nous à cette vente" (11 December 1918, in NGA curatorial files).
[3] On sale to Stout see Knoedler sales book no. 11, page 256. For the consignment from the Stout heirs, see Knoedler commission book no. 3, number 1103 under consignments for 19 February 1937, although it is annotated as sold December 1936 to the Mellon Trust; the sale date to the Mellon Trust is also confirmed in Knoedler sales book no. 13. All M. Knoedler & Co. records, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (copies, NGA curatorial files).
[4] The Mellon Trust purchase date is according to Mellon collection files in NGA curatorial records and David Finley's notebook (donated to the NGA in 1977, now in the Gallery Archives).

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1924

  • Loan Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Frank D. Stout, The Art Institute of Chicago, 1924, no cat., mentioned in Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago (October 1924): 91, as Little Teacher.

1933

  • A Century of Progress, The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933, no. 211.

1937

  • [exhibition], Phillips Memorial Gallery, Washington, D.C., 1937, no cat.

2010

  • Chardin: il pittore del silenzio, Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara; Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, 2010-2011, no. 48, repro. (shown only in Madrid).

Bibliography

1863

  • Goncourt, Edmond de, and Jules de Goncourt. "Chardin." Gazette des Beaux-Arts 1st ser., vol. 15 (December 1863): 527.

1875

  • Bocher, Emmanuel. Les gravures françaises du XVIIIe siècle; ou, Catalogue raisonné des estampes, eaux-fortes, pièces en couleur, au bistre et au lavis, de 1700 à 1800. 6 vols. Paris, 1875-1882: 3:34, 65, possibly no. 62.

1880

  • Goncourt, Edmond de, and Jules de Goncourt. L'art du dix-huitième siècle. 2 vols. Paris, 1880-1884: 1:112, 121.

1904

  • Schéfer, Gaston. Chardin. Paris, 1904: possibly 59.

1907

  • Dayot, Armand. "Chardin." L'Art et les artistes. 5 (June 1907): 140.

  • Dayot, Armand, and Jean Guiffrey. J.-B. Siméon Chardin, avec un catalogue complete de l'oeuvre du maître par Jean Guiffrey. Paris, 1907: 48, 60; in catalogue: possibly 7, 28, 32, 87, 103.

1925

  • Holmes, Sir Charles. "New Pictures at the National Gallery." [London] The Burlington Magazine 47 (1925): 33.

  • Bodkin, Thomas. "Chardin in the London and Dublin National Galleries." The Burlington Magazine 47 (1925): 92, 93, repro.

1933

  • "A Century of Progress Exhibit List." Art News 31 (27 May 1933): 4.

  • "Art's Progress in America for 100 years shown at World's Fair." The Art Digest 7 (15 May 1933): 35.

  • The Art Digest 7 (1 October 1933): 22.

  • Wildenstein, Georges. Chardin. Paris, 1933: 170, possibly no. 170, no. 171, or no. 173.

1937

  • "Le don de M. Mellon à la nation américaine." Revue de l'Art 376 (April 1937): 84.

  • Fortune 15 (May 1937): 138, repro.

  • Washington Star. (25 April 1937): gravure section, repro.

  • Frankfurter, Alfred M. "A Portfolio of the Andrew W. Mellon Collection." Art News 35 (1 May 1937): 109, repro.

  • Frankfurter, Alfred M. "The Mellon Gift to the Nation." Art News 35 (9 January 1937): 12.

  • Jewell, Edward Alden. "Mellon's Gift." Magazine of Art 30, no. 2 (February 1937): 73, 81, repro. (as "Maîtress d'Ecole").

1941

  • "World Masterpieces Lend Supreme Distinction to National Gallery of Art." The Washington Star (16 March 1941): F6.

  • Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 39, no. 91.

1942

  • Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 241, repro. 46.

1944

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. Masterpieces of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1944: 120, color repro.

1949

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 103, repro.

1956

  • Einstein, Lewis. "Looking at French Eighteenth Century Pictures in Washington." Gazette des Beaux-Arts 6th ser., 47, no. 1048-1049 (May-June 1956): 231.

1963

  • Wildenstein, Georges. Chardin. Zurich, 1963: 151, no. 81, as disparu.

1965

  • Cooke, H. Lester. Galeria Nacional de Washington. Translated by Maria Teresa de la Cruz. Madrid, 1965: 300, repro.

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

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture: Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 19, repro.

1969

  • Wildenstein, Georges. Chardin: catalogue raisonné. Revised by Daniel Wildenstein; translated by Stuart Gilbert. Oxford, 1969: no. 81 [as whereabouts unknown]

1973

  • Wilenski, R.H. French Painting. New York, 1973:123

  • Snoep-Reitsma, Ella. "Chardin and the Bourgeois Ideals of his Time." Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 24 (1973): 219.

1975

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

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: 325, repro.

1979

  • Rosenberg, Pierre. Chardin. Exh. cat. Grand Palais, Paris, 1979: 228-230, repro., under no. 70.

1983

  • Rosenberg, Pierre. L'opera completa di Chardin. Milan, 1983: no. 104B, repro. [discussed under no. 104A]

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 323, no. 426, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 85, repro.

1986

  • Conisbee, Philip. Chardin. Oxford, 1986: 149.

1993

  • Sporre, Dennis J. The Creative Impulse: An Introduction to the Arts. New Jersey, 1993: 357, repro. fig. 12.10.

1994

  • Roland Michel, Marianne. Chardin. Paris, 1994: 122, 204.

1999

  • Rosenberg, Pierre, and Renaud Temperini. Chardin. Paris, 1999: 239, no. 105b.

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. 15, 79-84, color repro.

Wikidata ID

Q20177928

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