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A pale-skinned woman stands holding a spoon and egg, and bracing a long-handled pan in one elbow, in front of a wooden table near a fireplace mantle in this vertical painting. The scene is brightly lit from our left, and the background falls into shadow. To the right of center, the woman wears a hip-length, white jacket patterned with large, rose-pink dots over a long skirt with vertical stripes of peach, shell and carnation pink, white, and tawny brown. A knee-length, petal-pink apron is pinned to the front of her dress. A frilled white bonnet covers her hair, and she wears fern-green, high-heeled, slip-on shoes. Her body faces our left almost in profile. She holds a silver spoon in her right hand as she peels the egg she holds in the other. A white cloth with a powder-blue stripe is draped over her left arm, which is bent to cradle the long handle of a pot. She stands in front of the table, which angles away from us. The end of the table closest to us is covered with a white cloth under a round loaf of bread, a tall, sky-blue pitcher, a shallow bowl with another egg and a pewter egg cup inside, and a large knife with a wooden handle. A mahogany-red pot with its cover askew sits at her feet. Behind the woman and to our right, the mantle and fireplace is cut off by the right edge of the canvas. A wooden ladderback chair peeks out from beyond the mantle, and a tall, covered, olive-green pitcher sits on the floor in front of it. A stoppered flagon and two bowls sit on the corner of the mantle. The wall and floor are fawn brown, darkening in shadow toward the back and left of the room.

Jean Siméon Chardin

The Attentive Nurse, 1747

West Building, Main Floor - Gallery 54

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 46.2 x 37 cm (18 3/16 x 14 9/16 in.)

framed: 61.9 x 53.7 x 7.3 cm (24 3/8 x 21 1/8 x 2 7/8 in.)

Credit Line

Samuel H. Kress Collection

Accession Number

1952.5.37

Artists / Makers

Jean Siméon Chardin (painter) French, 1699 - 1779

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Inscription

lower right in brown paint: Chardin.

Provenance

Acquired from the artist by Prince Joseph Wenzel of Liechtenstein [1696-1772], Austrian ambassador to France, 1737-1741; by descent through the Princes of Liechtenstein to Prince Franz Josef II von und zu Liechtenstein [1906-1989], Vienna and later Vaduz, until at least 1948; (Frederick Mont, Inc., New York); purchased 1 November 1950 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[1] gift 1952 to NGA.

[1] The invoice from Frederick Mont to the Kress Foundation is dated 1 November 1950 (copy in NGA curatorial files, see also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/2078.).

Associated Names

Kress Foundation, Samuel H.
Liechtenstein, Prince Joseph Wenzel of
Liechtenstein, Princes of
Mont, Inc., Frederick

Exhibition History

1747: Salon, Paris, 1747, no. 60, as Les Aliments de la Convalesence.

1907: Chardin et Fragonard, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 1907, no. 25, as Le Déjeuner préparé.

1910: Ausstellung von Werken Französischer Kunst des XVIII. Jahrhunderts, Königliche Akademie der Künste, Berlin, 1910, no. 298, as Eine Köchin, eine Zitrone schälend in first ed. of cat. and Ein Küchenmädchen in third ed. of cat. (no. 22 in French ed.).

1979: Chardin 1699-1779, Grand Palais, Paris; Cleveland Museum of Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1979, no. 92.

1999: Chardin, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf; Royal Academy of Arts, London; The Metropolitan Mus. of Art, New York, 1999-2000, no. 65, repro., as Meal for a Convalescent or The Attentive Nurse (shown London and NY).

2003: The Age of Watteau, Chardin, and Fragonard: Masterpieces of French Genre Painting, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Altes Museum, Berlin, 2003-2004, no. 42, repro.

2010: Chardin: il pittore del silenzio, Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara; Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, 2010-2011, no. 49, repro. (shown only in Ferrara).

2012: Jean-Siméon Chardin 1699-1779, Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum, Tokyo, 2012-2013, no. 21, repro.

Bibliography

1747: Leblanc, abbé Jean Bernard. Lettre sur l'exposition des ouvrages de peinture, sculpture, etc., . . . de l'année 1747. Paris, 1747: 95.

1864: Goncourt, Edmond de, and Jules de Goncourt. "Chardin." Gazette des Beaux-Arts 1st ser., vol. 16 (February 1864): 154, n. 2.

1867: "Vente Laperlier." Chronique des Arts, no. 181 (21 April 1867): 122.

1869: "Exposition de 1737," in Collection des livrets des anciennes expositions. 43 vols. Paris, 1869:4: 23, no. 60.

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: 3:91.

1880: Goncourt, Edmond de, and Jules de Goncourt. L'art du dix-huitième siècle. 2 vols. Paris, 1880-1884: 1:78, 123.

1899: Dilke, Emilia F.S., Lady. "Chardin et ses oeuvres à Potsdam et à Stockholm." Gazette des Beaux-Arts. 3rd ser., vol. 22 (September 1899): 334.

1899: Dilke, Emilia F.S., Lady. French Painters of the XVIIIth Century. London, 1899: 120.

1899: Fourcaud, L. de. "Jean-Baptiste Siméon Chardin." Revue de l'Art 2 (July-Dec. 1899): 406.

1900: Fourcaud, L. de. J.B. Siméon Chardin. Paris, 1900: 24.

1901: Normand, Charles. J.-B. Siméon Chardin. Paris, 1901: 102.

1904: Schéfer, Gaston. Chardin. Paris, 1904: 70, 71, 75, opp. 76, repro.

1907: Dayot, Armand, and Jean Guiffrey. J.-B. Siméon Chardin, avec un catalogue complete de l'oeuvre du maître par Jean Guiffrey. Paris, 1907: 8, 59, 82, 94, 95, 101, opp. 24, repro., opp. 80, repro.

1907: Dayot, Armand, and Léandre Vaillat. L'oeuvre de J.-B.-S. Chardin et de J.-H. Fragonard. Paris, 1907: 5, no. 24, repro.

1908: Frantz, H. "The Chardin-Fragonard Exhibition in Paris." The Studio 42 (1908): 30.

1909: Pilon, Edmond. Chardin. Paris, 1909: 45, 46, opp. 52, repro., opp. 170, repro.

1910: Alfassa, Paul. "Exposition d'art français du XVIIIe siècle à Berlin." Revue de l'Art (Jan.-June 1910): 294.

1911: Furst, Herbert Ernest Augustus. Chardin. London, 1911: 42, 119, pl. 21.

1927: Kronfeld, Adolf. Führer durch die Fürstlich Liechtensteinsche Gemäldegalerie in Wien. Vienna, 1927: 82, no. 379.

1929: Osborn, Max. Die Kunst des Rokoko. Berlin, 1929: color pl. VII between 184 and 185, 611.

1931: Pascal, André, and Roger Gaucheron. Documents sur la vie et l'oeuvre de Chardin. Paris, 1931: 82.

1932: Ridder, André de. J.B.S. Chardin. Paris, 1932: 33, 49, pls. 72, 74.

1933: Wildenstein, Georges. Chardin. Paris, 1933: 81, 154, no. 1, pl. 1, fig. 1.

1947: Lazarev, V.N. Chardin. Moscow, 1947: pl. 23.

1951: Frankfurter, Alfred. "New Additions to the Kress Collection." Art News 50 (April 1951): cover, repro. 5, 63.

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: 226, no. 101, repro.

1952: Walker, John. "Your National Gallery of Art after 10 Years." National Geographic Magazine 101 no. 1 (January 1952): 74, 85, 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): 234.

1956: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1956: 46, color repro.

1959: Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 355, repro.

1959: Wildenstein, Georges. "L'abbé de Saint-Non artiste et mécène." Gazette des Beaux- Arts ser. 6, no. 54 (November 1959): 104.

1960: Adhémar, Hélène. "Chardin." In Encyclopedia of World Art. Paris, 1960:3: 456.

1960: The National Gallery of Art and Its Collections. Foreword by Perry B. Cott and notes by Otto Stelzer. National Gallery of Art, Washington (undated, 1960s): 9, color repro. 15.

1963: Garas, Klára. Chardin. Budapest, 1963: pl. 17.

1963: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 212, repro.

1963: Wildenstein, Georges. Chardin. Zurich, 1963: 184-185, no. 218, pl. 35, color repro.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 27.

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: 60, 193-194, no. 218, pl. 35, color repro., fig. 103.

1973: Snoep-Reitsma, Ella. "Chardin and the Bourgeois Ideals of his Time." Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 24 (1973): 224, fig. 84.

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

1975: Kuroe, Mitsuhiko. Chardin. Tokyo, 1975: pl. 19.

1977: Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian. Oxford, 1977: 313-314, fig. 279, as Nourishment for Convalescence (Les Aliments de la Convalescence).

1978: Cotté, Sabine. Chardin. Paris, 1978: 63. repro.

1979: Watson, Ross. The National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1979: 83, pl. 70.

1983: Rosenberg, Pierre. Chardin: New Thoughts. Kansas, 1983: 12, 16, 39, repro. pl. 1.

1983: Rosenberg, Pierre. L'opera completa di Chardin. Milan, 1983: no. 125, repro. pl. 35.

1983: Veca, Alberto. Simposio: Cerimonie e Apparati. Bergamo, 1983: 149, fig. 115.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 320, no. 422, color repro.

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

1986: Conisbee, Philip. Chardin. Oxford, 1986: 165, 169, 172, 175, 177, 184, 195, pl. 174, detail pl. 169.

1986: Mittler, Gene A. Art in Focus. Peoria, 1986: 273, repro.

1991: Démoris, René. Chardin, la chair et l'object. Paris, 1991: 97, 126.

1994: Roland Michel, Marianne. Chardin. Paris, 1994: 160, 220-221, color repro. 223.

1995: Edizel, Gerar. "Jean-Siméon Chardin: Seeing, Playing, Forgetting, and the Practice of Modern Imitation." Ph.D. dissertation, Cornell University, Ithica, 1995: 143-145. repro. 44.

1996: Donahue, M. Patricia. Nursing, The Finest Art: An Illustrated History. St Louis, 1996: 21, color repro.

1999: Rosenberg, Pierre, and Renaud Temperini. Chardin. Paris, 1999: 17, 256, nos. 126, 293.

2001: Southgate, M. Therese. The Art of JAMA II: Covers and Essays from The Journal of the American Medical Association. Chicago, 2001: 46-47, 209, 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: 201-202, fig. 73a (not in the exhibition).

2005: Démoris, René. "Inside/Interiors: Chardin's Images of the Family." Art History 28, no. 4 (September 2005): 457.

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. 16, 85-88, color repro.

2010: Ledbury, Mark. "Embracing and Escaping the Material: Genre Painting, Objects and Private Life in Eighteenth-Century France." In Andrew Kahn, ed. Representing Private Lives of the Enlightenment, ed. Andrew Kahn. Oxford, 2010: 200, fig. 6.

2021: Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. "In Pursuit of Masterpieces: The National Gallery of Art's Acquisitions from The Prince of Liecthenstein." Artibus et historiae 42, no. 83 (2021): 317, 319, fig. 7, 329 n. 15.