The White Tablecloth

CC0 Public Domain Designation

c. 1731–32

Jean Baptiste Siméon Chardin (French, 1699–1779)

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.

Status: On View, Gallery 216
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Jean Baptiste Siméon Chardin
Title: The White Tablecloth
Place: France (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1731–1732
Medium: Oil on canvas
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.)
Credit Line: Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Memorial Collection
Reference Number: 1944.699
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/51577/manifest.json

P[ierre] J[ean] Mariette, Abécédario de P. J. Mariette et autres notes inédites de cet amateur sur les arts et les artistes, vol. 1 in Archives de l’art français, 2, Paris, 1851-53, p. 357.
W. Bürger [Théophile Etienne Joseph Thoré], “Exposition de tableaux de l’école française, tirés de collections d’amateurs,” part 3, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1st. ser., 8 (1860), p. 234.
Théodore Lejeune, Guide théorique et pratique de l’amateur de tableaux: Etudes sur les imitateurs et les copistes des maîtres de toutes les écoles dont les oeuvres forment la base ordinaire des galeries, vol. 1, Paris, 1864, p. 440.
Charles Blanc, Histoire des peintres de toutes les écoles, part 3, Ecole française, vol. 2, Paris, 1865, Chardin p. 16.
Philippe Burty, “Profils d’amateurs, I, Laurent Laperlier,” L’Art 16 (1879), p. 148.
Edmond and Jules de Goncourt, “Art du dix-huitieme siècles, 3rd ed., vol. 1, Paris, 1880, p. 73.
Armand Dayot and Jean Guiffrey, J-B. Siméon Chardin, Paris, [1907], pp. 36-37, no. 351, p. 54, no. 19, pp. 82-83, no. 165.
Armand Dayot and Léandre Vaillat, L’Oeuvre de J.-B.-S. Chardin et de J.-H. Fragonard, Paris, [1907], p. IX, no. 53, ill.
Jean Guiffrey, “L’Exposition Chardin-Fragonard,” La Revue de l’art ancien et moderne 22 (1907), pp. 95 ill., 102.
Pierre de Nolhac, “Fragonard et Chardin,” Les Arts 16 (July1907), pp. 42-43.
Maurice Tourneaux, “Exposition Chardin et Fragonard,” Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 3rd ser., 38 (1907), pp. 97-98 ill.
Jean Guiffrey, Catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre peint et dessiné de J.-B. Siméon Chardin, Paris, 1908, pp. 36-37, no. 351, p. 54, no. 19, pp. 82-83, no. 165.
Edmond Pilon, Chardin, Paris, [1909], p. 167.
Herbert E.A. Furst, Chardin, London, [1911], pp. 30, 127.
Seymour de Ricci, “Les Ventes,” Beaux-arts 3, 13, (1925), p. 216, no. 125.
Gabriel Henriot, Collection David-Weill, vol. 1, Peintures, Paris, 1926, pp. 31-33, ill.
Georges Wildenstein, Chardin, Paris, 1933, p. 235, no. 1057, fig. 159.
Jean Babelon, review of Georges Wildenstein, Chardin in Beaux-Arts, n.s. 72, 50 (1933), p. 1, ill.
Alfred M. Frankfurter, “The Dix-Huitième in Full Glory: French Masters in the David-Weill Collection,” Art News 36, 6 (1937), pp. 13 ill., 22.
Doris Brian, “Sources of Modern Painting: N.Y. Sees a Notable Show from New England,” Art News 37, 31 (1937), pp. 10 ill., 20.
Henry de Courcy May, “The Spirit of the Eighteenth Century,”Art News 41, 15 (1942), p. 15, ill.
Art News 44, 7 (1945), p. 15, ill.
Ernst Goldschmidt, Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, Stockholm, 1945, p. 116, fig. 47.
Frederick A. Sweet, “The White Tablecloth by Chardin,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 39, 4 (1945), pp. 50-53 (ill., cover).
“Recent Important Acquisitions of American Coollections—The White Tablecloth by Chardin,”Art Quarterly 8 (1945), pp. 163-67, ill.
Frederick Taubes, “Pictorial Composition,” American Artist 10 (October 1946), p. 30, ill.
Art Institute of Chicago, An Illustrated Guide to the Collections of The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 1948, pp. 31-32, ill.
Michel Florisoone, La Peinture française: Le dix-huitième siècle, Paris, 1948, pl. 72.
Francis Jourdain, Chardin, 1699-1779, Paris, [1949], pl. 44.
Bernard Denvir, Chardin, New York, 1950, pl. 32.
Art Institute of Chicago, Masterpieces in The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 1952, n.pag.ill.
Aline B. Louchheim, “A New Yorker Visits the Art Institute,” Art Institute Quarterly 46 (1952), pp. 23-24, ill.
Charles Sterling, La Nature morte de l’antiquité à nos jours, Paris, 1952, p. 78, pl. 60.
G[eorges] de Lastic Saint Jal, “Des Découvertes à faire les devants de cheminée,” Connaissance des arts 39 (May 15, 1955), pp. 29, 31, ill.
Art Institute of Chicago, An Illustrated Guide to the Collections of The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, [1956], pp. 31-32, ill.
Stéphane Faniel, ed., French Art of the Eighteenth Century, Collection Connaissance des Arts 1 New York, 1957, p. 21, ill.
James Barrelet, “Chardin du point de vue de la verrerie,” Gazette de Beaux-Arts 6th ser., 53 (1959), pp. 309, 311.
Georges Wildenstein, “Le Décor de la vie de Chardin d’après ses tableaux,” Gazette des Beaux-Arts 6th ser., 53 (1959), p. 100, fig. 5.
Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection, Chicago, 1961, pp, 75-76, 229 ill.
Georges Wildenstein, Chardin, Zurich, 1963, pp. 149-50, no. 73, ill.; rev. ed. by Daniel Wildenstien, trans. by Stuart Gilbert, Greenwich, Conn., 1969, p. 157, no. 73, fig. 34.
René Huyghe, La Peinture française des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, Paris, 1965, p. 78, ill.
Viktor N. Lazarev, Jean-Baptiste Siméon Chardin, tr. By Monica Huchek, Dresden, 1966, p. 17, pl. 8.
Sacheverell Sitwell, “The Pleasures of the Senses,” Apollo 87 (February 1968), p. 132.
John Maxon, The Art Institute of Chicago, London, 1970, p. 262, ill.
Dewey F. Mosby, Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps, 1803-1860, vol. 1, New York and London, 1977, p. 57.
Gerrit Henry, “New York Reviews: The Object as Subject,” Art News 74, 5 (1975), p. 92.
Michel Faré and Fabrice Faré, La Vie silencieuse en France: La Nature morte au XVIIIe siècle, Fribourg and Paris, 1976, pp. 154, 156.
Axelle de Gaigneron, “Un Nouveau Regard sur les natures mortes de Chardin,” Connaissance des arts no. 323 (1979), p. 33.
John D. Morse, Old Master Paintings in North America, New York, 1979.
Pierre Rosenberg, Chardin 1699-1779, exh.cat. Paris, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, 1979, pp. 10, 194, under no. 54.
Miriam Milman, Les Illusions de la réalité: Le Trompe-l’oeil, Geneva, 1982, pp. 90 ill., 124.
Pierre Rosenberg, L’Opera completa di Chardin, Classici dell’arte, London, 1985, p. 85, no. 78 ill.
Philip Conisbee, Chardin, London, 1985, pp. 94, 106-7, fig. 88.
Georges Steiner, review of Philip Conisbee, Chardin, in The New Yorker, November 17, 1986, p. 146.
Christopher Wright, The World’s Master Paintings from the Early Renaissance to the Present Day: A Comprehensive Listing of Works by 1,300 Painters and a Complete Guide to Their Locations Worldwide, New York, 1991, vol. 1, p. 434, vol. 2, pp. 62, 677.
James Yood, Feasting: A Celebration of Food in Art, New York, 1992, p. 12 (detail), no. 10, ill.
Susan Wise in Susan Wise and Malcolm Warner, French and British Paintings from 1600 to 1800 in The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 1996, pp. 24-28, ill.
Pierre Rosenberg and Renaud Temperini, Chardin, suivi du Catalogue des oeuvres (Paris, 1999), p. 223, no. 79, fig. 79.
Jean Siméon Chardin 1699-1779, Tokyo, Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum, 2012, p. 87, fig. 1.
Thomas Crow, “Chardin at the Edge of Belief: Overlooked Issues of Religion and Dissent in Eighteenth-Century French Painting” in French Genre Painting in the Eighteenth Century, Philip Conisbee, ed., Studies in the History of Art 72, Symposium Papers 49 (Washington, D.C., 2007), pp. 91-101, figs. 2 and 6.
Alice Insley and Martin Myrone, eds., Hogarth and Europe, exh. cat. (London: Tate Enterprises, 2021), 160 (ill.), 212.

Paris, [Galerie Martinet], Boulevard des Italiens, Tableaux et dessins de l’école française principalement du XVIIIe siècle tirés de collections d’amateurs, 1860, no. 351, as Le Cervelas.
Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, Exposition Chardin et Fragonard, 1907, no. 19, as La Table servie.
New York, Wildenstein, David-Weill Pictures, [1937], no. 3, no cat.
New York, Wildenstein, (organized by the Institute of Modern Art, Boston), The Sources of Modern Painting: A Loan Exhibition Assembled from American Public and Private Collections, 1939, no. 9.
New York, Parke-Bernet, French and English Art Treasures of the XVIII Century, 1942, no. 6.
Art Institute of Chicago, Masterpiece of the Month, February 1949, no cat.
New York, Wildenstein, Jubilee Loan Exhbition 1901-1951: Masterpieces from Museums and Private Collections, 1951, no. 22.
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, French Eighteenth-Century Painters, 1954, no. 7, no cat.
London, Royal Academy of Arts, Winter Exhibition, 1968, no. 139.
New York, Wildenstein, The Object as Subject: Still Life Paintings from the Seventeenth to the Twentieth Century, 1975, no. 22.
Art Institute of Chicago, Selected Works of Eighteenth-Century Frenchy Art in the Collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1976, no. 7.
The Art Institute of Chicago, A Case for Wine, July11—September 20, 2009, no exhibition catalogue.
London, Tate Britain, Hogarth and Europe, Nov. 1, 2021-Mar. 20, 2022, no cat. no.

Probably Alexandre Gabriel Descamps, Paris; sold Hôtel des Ventes Mobilières, Paris 21 April 1853, no. 28 as Nature morte for Fr 600. Sold Hôtel des Commissaires-Priseurs, Paris, 20-21 December 1858, no. 40. Laurent Laperlier, Paris, by 1860, to at least 1865 [see Bürger 1860, Lejeune 1864, and Blanc 1865]. Léon Michel-Lévy, Paris by 1907; sold, Galerie Georges Petit, 17-18 June 1925, no. 125, to Wildenstein for Fr 202,000 [see Ricci, 1925]. David David-Weill, Paris by 1926 [see Henriot 1926 cat. of David-Weill collection]; David-Weill collection on deposit at Wildenstein & Co., New York, by January 1938 [Joseph Baillio letter to Susan Wise, 11 December 1987]; acquired by the Art Institute from David-Weill through the agency of Wildenstein & Co., 19 November 1944.

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