Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin
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This picture was painted in 1728, the year Chardin was admitted to the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture. Chardin had specialized in the still life genre, and no other French still life painter of the 18th century approached the subject with as much artistic freedom as he did. This painting is a case in point: the smooth pewter jug and the velvety peaches are placed on a narrow stone ledge in front of a dark wall. Pushed close together and taking center stage, the objects are cast in a bright light. It heightens the color of the fruit and the metallic gleam of the jug, in which the peaches are reflected. But Chardin does not differentiate between the materiality of the object and its reflection. The skin of the peaches is rendered in a rich and occasionally grainy impasto, while the background is applied flat and in several layers.
Although Caroline Louise, Margravine of Baden, had a marked predilection for the Netherlandish "fine painting" of the 17th century, she also appreciated Chardin’s freer style of paint handling. In 1759 and 1761 she acquired a total of four still lifes by the artist, one a pair of game still lifes, the other a pair of fruit still lifes.
We present this painting thanks to the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe.
P.S. Check another Chardin's painting here! It’s tacky! It’s funny! It’s weird!