Monday, December 7

Jean Baptiste Simeon Chardin's legacy for the impressionists

Top-right:Boy Playing with cards, 1740, by Jean B. Chardin Top-left: Girl with Racket and Shuttlecock, 1740, Jean B. Chardin Left: Soap Bubles, 1734, by Jean B. S. Chardin Although he was the painter of aristocratic world in the late of the 17 century Jean Baptiste Simeon Chardin, a French painter, also depicted quotidian life and one of his themes were young people playing. At this post there is Manet's "soap bubble children and he received the inspiration from the left painting. This is what Wikipedia says about his legacy:
Chardin's influence on the art of the modern era was wide-ranging, and has been well-documented.[11] Edouard Manet's half-length Boy Blowing Bubbles and the still lifes of Paul Cézanne are equally indebted to their predecessor.[12] He was one of Henri Matisse's most admired painters; as an art student Matisse made copies of four Chardin paintings in the Louvre.[13] Chaim Soutine's still lifes looked to Chardin for inspiration, as did the paintings of Georges Braque, and later, Giorgio Morandi.[12] In 1999 Lucian Freud painted and etched several copies after The Young Schoolmistress (National Gallery, London).[1]
Matisse's favorite painter? I am not sure. Anyway... he studied Chardin and this is already quite an homage! I like this universe of children playing and it's amazing that Chardin's son has died at a early age probably because of suicide. Sad, too sad. Unfortunately these reproductions do not show half of Chardin's skills.