About this artwork
Jean-Siméon Chardin won acclaim for the still lifes and quiet scenes of middle-class domestic life that he exhibited at salons sponsored by the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. In his early still lifes, such as this one, he incorporated motifs common to 17th-century Dutch and Flemish works: the foreshortened knife, the handle of which protrudes over the table’s edge; the overturned glass; and the remains of a meal. The work’s unusual shape reveals its original function as a screen for the opening of a fireplace. Viewed at floor level, the screen would have conveyed the illusion of a table recessed into the fireplace.
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Status
- On View, Gallery 216
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Department
- Painting and Sculpture of Europe
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Artist
- Jean Baptiste Siméon Chardin
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Title
- The White Tablecloth
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Place
- France (Artist's nationality:)
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Date
- 1731–1732
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Medium
- Oil on canvas
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Dimensions
- 96.8 × 123.5 cm (38 1/8 × 48 5/16 in.); Framed: 126.7 × 154.4 × 14 cm (49 7/8 × 60 3/4 × 5 1/2 in.)
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Credit Line
- Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Memorial Collection
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Reference Number
- 1944.699
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IIIF Manifest
- https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/51577/manifest.json
Extended information about this artwork
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