Baroque and Rococo
Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin
Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin
(b Paris, 2 Nov 1699; d Paris, 6 Dec 1779).
French painter. He rose from a relatively humble background to become one of the most admired painters of mid-18th-century France and to hold the influential position of Treasurer of the Académie Royale. His austere still-lifes and bourgeois domestic genre scenes were highly praised by Diderot in his Salon reviews, and, though his reputation went into decline after his death, Chardin was by the middle of the 19th century once again among the most highly esteemed of French painters. His works and technique continued to find particular favour with artists and connoisseurs. Although he is often referred to as Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, there is no documentary evidence to confirm this additional name.
Self-Portrait at an Easel
1779
Pastel on paper
Musée du Louvre, Paris
Girl with Racket and Shuttlecock
1740
Oil on canvas, 82 x 66 cm
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence
