Chardin [Hardcover]

Marianne Roland Michel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 30, 1996

Jean Baptiste Simeon Chardin, the still-life artist of 18th-century France, was born in Paris in 1699. Having received no formal training, he rose to become one of the most highly-regarded painters of his lifetime, his work widely exhibited and sought by the rich and famous. His still-lifes, composed of simple elements, are exceptional in their depth of tone and striking in their directness. The genre scenes depict the domesticity of everyday bourgeois life, unsentimentalized and unidealized. This monograph reproduces a selection of 128 paintings, focusing on particular sections in enlarged detail to highlight texture and technique. A selection of prints and works by Chardin's contemporaries is also included. The book is divided into two sections, examining first the life of the artist and then the paintings themselves. Each area of Chardin's oevre is discussed in detail and he is placed in the context of the artistic life of the time.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

First published in France in 1994, Chardin expands on the work of Georges Wildenstein in the 1933 book, Chardin, and Pierre Rosenberg's catalog for the great Chardin exhibition of 1979. Jean-Baptiste Simeon Chardin was largely a self-taught painter who took the Academy of Painting by storm in 1728 despite the lowly status enjoyed by most still-life painters in his day. Though he rescued the academy's finances and won great artistic influence, he was never allowed to teach and was denied the academy's higher honors because he was a "painter of animals and fruit." Even so, for 20 years he performed the important task of hanging salon exhibits. Chardin examines the painter's career through his paintings and the writings of his contemporaries.

From Publishers Weekly

While 18th-century Parisian painter Jean-Baptiste Simeon Chardin (1699-1779) is often linked to Flemish and Dutch still lifes, French art historian and gallery director Michel views him as quintessentially French in his sensitivity, spirit, coloristic skill and ineffable touch. And where other critics perceive symbolism or concealed messages, she sees only irreplaceable, unique moments, timelessly rendered, as in Soap Bubbles. Although the heavily annotated, dry text will be of interest mainly to scholars, the nearly 300 illustrations (half of them in color, including scores of full-page plates) make this an attractive coffee-table album. It reproduces numerous genre scenes, portraits and domestic interiors (Lady Taking Tea, The Cellar Boy, Game of Knucklebones) from far-flung museums and private collections. Chardin's ironic self-portraits, with their deeply penetrating gaze and air of affable authority, provide perhaps the best key to the mysterious magic of his still, yet vibrant, compositions.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 293 pages
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams; First U.S. Edition edition (April 30, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810940418
• ISBN-13: 978-0810940413
• Product Dimensions: 13.7 x 11.7 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #893,725 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent work on Chardin, July 26, 2000

By 

George - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chardin (Hardcover)

As an admirer of Chardin I was realy glad to buy this book. Actually this is not a book, this is a treasure. It is an exhaustive work on Master Chardin not only on his still lifes but his work as a whole. The quality of the presentation in one of the best I have ever seen in art books!

Highly recommended