Still Life with Game
probably 1750s
Painter, French, 1699 - 1779
Chardin presents the bounty of a successful hunt with brute realism and immediacy. The bold brushstrokes convey the hares’ soft fur, the sticky, congealed blood, and the pheasant’s prickly feathers. Critics in the 1700s marveled at the way Chardin could use paint to capture not only how things appear but also their weight and physical presence. Unlike many artists of his time, Chardin does not show the animals ready to be cooked or displayed on expensive platters as tokens of wealth and status. They seem to exist in a placeless world, out of time. Chardin’s painting confronts us with the basic facts of life — and death.
West Building Main Floor, Gallery 53
Artwork overview
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Medium
oil on canvas
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 49.6 x 59.4 cm (19 1/2 x 23 3/8 in.)
framed: 72.2 x 82.1 x 8.3 cm (28 7/16 x 32 5/16 x 3 1/4 in.) -
Accession
1952.5.36
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Possibly (Wildenstein & Co., Paris, New York, and London);[1] David David-Weill [1871-1952], Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, by 1925;[2] purchased February/March 1937 with the David-Weill collection by (Wildenstein & Co., Paris, New York, and London);[3] sold 1946 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[4] gift 1952 to NGA.
[1] Eisler 1977: 314 indicates that David-Weill acquired the painting from Wildenstein, whose Paris office no longer has records to confirm this transaction (see letter from Ay-Whang Hsia to David Rust, 8 August 1978, in NGA curatorial files).
[2] The painting appears in the background of a portrait of David-Weill painted by Edouard Vuillard in 1925, and was catalogued in the David-Weill collection by Georges Henriot in 1926.
[3] "Sale of the David-Weill Collection." Art News 35 (27 February 1937): 12 and "David-Weill Pictures Come to New York." Art Digest 12 (1 November 1937): 13. David-Weill, head of Lazard Frère Bank and Chairman of the Conseil des Musées de France, had an extraordinary collection of art which was dispersed in several ways during the World War II era. Some of the collection was consigned to Wildenstein's in London, who in turn sent some of the paintings, including this Chardin, to their New York branch where they were exhibited in 1937. Despite complications of nationality during the war, David-Weill managed to ship a large part of the collection via Lisbon to New York. Unfortunately another portion of the collection, which had been safeguarded in Sourches by French museum administration officials, was confiscated by the Nazis in July 1941. Much of the collection was recovered and processed through the Munich Central Collecting Point after the war by the Allies.
[4] See The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/2017.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1937
Paintings from the David-Weill Collection, Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York, 1937, no. 5, as Nature Morte.
1939
The Great Tradition of French Painting, Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York, 1939, no. 18, as The Pheasant.
1979
Chardin 1699-1779, Grand Palais, Paris; Cleveland Museum of Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1979, no. 99, repro.
1999
Chardin, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf; Royal Academy of Arts, London; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1999-2000, no. 71, repro., as Two Rabbits, a Pheasant and a Seville Orange on a Stone Ledge.
2002
Anne Vallayer-Coster: Painter to the Court of Marie-Antoinette, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Dallas Museum of Art; The Frick Collection, New York, 2002-2003, no. B, pl. 82 (shown only in Washington and Dallas).
Bibliography
1926
Henriot, Gabriel. Collection David-Weill. 3 vols. Paris, 1926-1928: I: opp. 43, repro.
1931
Pascal, André, and Roger Gaucheron. Documents sur la vie et l'oeuvre de Chardin. Paris, 1931: 152.
1933
Wildenstein, Georges. Chardin. Paris, 1933: 210, no. 714, pl. 65, fig. 83.
1937
"David-Weill Pictures Come to New York." Art Digest 12 (1 November 1937): 13.
1948
Wildenstein and Company. French XVIII Century Paintings. New York, 1948: opp. table of contents.
1951
Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1945-1951. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1951: 228, no. 102, repro., as Still Life.
1959
Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 353, repro., as Still Life.
1963
Rosenberg, Pierre. Chardin: Biographical and Critical Study. Translated by Helga Harrison. Lausanne, 1963: 73, 75, 86, repro.
Wildenstein, Georges. Chardin. Zurich, 1963: 140, no. 30, pl. 1, color repro.
1965
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: 19, repro.
1969
Wildenstein, Georges. Chardin: catalogue raisonné. Revised by Daniel Wildenstein; translated by Stuart Gilbert. Oxford, 1969: 147, no. 30, pl. 1, color repro.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 66, repro., as Still Life.
Paulson, Ronald. Emblem and Expression: Meaning in English Art of the Eighteenth Century. London, 1975: 105.
1976
Faré, Michel, and Fabrice Faré. La vie silencieuse en France: la nature morte au XVIIIe siècle. Fribourg, 1976: 151, fig. 232.
1977
Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian. Oxford, 1977: 314-315, fig. 277.
1983
Rosenberg, Pierre. L'opera completa di Chardin. Milan, 1983: no. 138, repro.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 323, no. 428, color repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 86, repro.
1986
Conisbee, Philip. Chardin. Oxford, 1986: 189, pl. 185, detail pl. 184.
1993
Held, Jutta, and Norbert Schneider. Sozialgeschichte der Malerei vom Spätmittelalter bis ins 20. Jahrhundert. Cologne, 1993: repro. 327.
1994
Roland Michel, Marianne. Chardin. Paris, 1994: 134-137, 143 n. 18, 187 n. 19, color repro. 136.
1999
Rosenberg, Pierre, and Renaud Temperini. Chardin. Paris, 1999: 124, 126, 263, no.139.
2003
Salomon, Antoine, and Guy Cogeval. Vuillard, The Inexhaustible Glance: Critical Catalogue of Paintings and Pastels. 3 vols. Milan and Paris, 2003: 3:1424, no. II-229.
2004
Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 250, no. 200, color 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., Inc., New York, 2005: 58, fig. 50, 73 (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. 17, 89-91, color repro.
Inscriptions
lower left in brown paint: chardin. / [illegible date]
On lining fabric: illegible customs stamp. On stretcher: label, "No.4/W.S. BUDWORTH & SON/PACKERS & SHIPPERS/424 WEST 52ND STREET., NEW YORK, N.Y."; "D.W./1317"; "17041"; "233.44"; "1419"; "17041"; "35g1"
Wikidata ID
Q20178038