Chardin Jean-Baptiste Simenon (Chardin Jean-Baptiste Simon)

(1699-1779)
Born in Paris on November 2, 1699. In his youth collaborated with AN-N.Kuapelem, who commissioned him to write in his portraits Accessories. Already at this time Chardin has shown remarkable ability to accurately image objects and the transfer characteristics of light and air. In 1728 he was elected to the Royal Academy as a master of still life, in 1743 was appointed advisor to the Academy, and in 1755 became its treasurer, a post he left shortly before his death.
Chardin wrote, still lifes throughout his life. After 1733 he also turned to genre scenes. It is thanks to them he became known throughout Europe. Most of these paintings depicts employed housework or resting women, children at play. Chardin hardly painted portraits, although some of his genre scenes are essentially hidden portraits. In old age, loss of vision caused him to switch from oil paintings to pastels, and he performed in this technique a few self-portraits and portraits of his wife and friends. Chardin died in Paris on December 6, 1779.

Despite the small size and simplicity of subjects, Chardin's paintings differ depth and subtlety of design interpretations image. Critics have always pointed out its exquisite flavor and finesse with a brush, especially the typical method of applying paint, where color patches are placed next to each other, or in multiple layers, forming a kind of mosaic. The surface of objects, which Chardin wrote, it seems both absorbing and reflecting the flickering light, pasty smear emphasize the structure of objects depicted. The coloring in his paintings somewhat muted, the light is soft and diffused, the texture of objects passed very subtly and masterfully. The items shown in the still lifes, Chardin, never too luxurious and beautiful, but their position seems to randomly. Characters in his genre scenes freely and naturally accommodated in the space. The effect does not violate the integrity of the picture is achieved through the accurate transmission of reflexes, shadows cast by objects, characteristic poses or views of the characters.

Chardin's contemporaries spoke of him as the successor of the traditions of Dutch and Flemish masters of still life and genre painting 17. And he must be well aware of the artistic. Chardin has enriched this tradition, he introduced in his genre scenes shade of grace and naturalness.