4x5 transparency scanned on Hasselblad Flextight X1 by Ed Pollard-2016.

Basket of Plums

Artist Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin (French, 1699 - 1779)

CultureFrench

Date1765

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsOverall: 12 3/4 x 16 1/2 in. (32.4 x 41.9 cm)
Overall, Frame: 17 1/2 in. x 20 5/8 (44.5 x 52.4 cm)

InscribedSigned "chardin" on the lower left corner of the painting.

Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.

Object number71.506

Collections

European Art before 1945

On View

Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 207

DescriptionAn oil on canvas painting of a wicker basketful of plums on a stone bench, with a string as a handle. It is surrounded by a few cherries, white currants, and two walnuts. The twelve plums are arranged in pyramid fashion. They are painted in rich violet and burgundy colors and are highlighted by light. There are two walnuts sharing a bit of the spotlight, while the currents and cherries are on the shadowed side of the basket of plums.

Label TextJean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin French, 1699-1779 Basket of Plums, 1765 Oil on canvas The subject couldn’t be much humbler: a wicker basket heaped with plums and placed on a stone ledge amid a scattering of walnuts, cherries, and currants. In an era when French painting was known for its grandeur and decorative embellishments, Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin’s still lifes and genre scenes were renowned for their simplicity and directness. Though considered too modest to be ranked alongside the extravagant works of François Boucher (on the opposite side of this room), Chardin’s paintings charmed many of his contemporaries. The great Paris intellectual Denis Diderot praised Chardin for his truthfulness and unassuming poetry—the very qualities that captivate us today. Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.506 ProvenanceEmil Leroux, Paris; Georges Hoardt, New York, 1939; Newhouse Galleries, New York, 1939; Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.; Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. to the Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, 1971. Exhibition History"Exposition de l'art au XVIIIe siècle," Charlottenberg Palace, Copenhagen, Aug. 25 - Oct. 6, 1935. (Exhib. cat. no. 33). "Chefs-d'oeuvre de l'art français," Palais National des Arts, Paris, 1937. (Exhib. cat. no. 144). "Origins of Modern Art," Arts Club of Chicago, April 1940. (Exhib. cat. no. 20). "Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.," Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, and Philadelphia Museum of Art, Jan. 16 - May 11, 1941. (Exhib. cat. no. 34). "Paintings from the Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.," Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon; Seattle Art Museum; California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Minneapolis Art Institute; St. Louis City Art Museum; William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City; Detroit Institute of Arts; and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, March 2, 1956 - April 14, 1957. (Exhib. cat. no. 64). "Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown Inaugural Exhibition," Provincetown, Massachusetts, 1958. (Exhib. cat. no. 11). "French Masters of the Eighteenth Century," Finch College Museum of Art, New York, Feb. 27 - April 7, 1963. (Exhib. cat. no. 17). "Still Life Painters: Pieter Aertsen 1508-1575 to George Braque 1882-1963," Finch College Museum of Art, New York, opened Feb. 2, 1965. (Exhib. cat. no. 25). "Treasures from the Chrysler Museum at Norfolk and Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.," Tennessee Fine Arts Center at Cheekwood, Nashville, June 12 - Sept. 5, 1977. (Exhib. cat. no. 21). "French Paintings from the Chrysler Museum," North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC, May 31 - Sept. 14, 1986; Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL, Nov. 6, 1986 - Jan. 18, 1987. (Exhib. cat. no. 13). "Inspiring Impressionism," High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia, October 16, 2007 - January 13, 2008; Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado, February 23 - May 25, 2008; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, June 19 - September 21, 2008 Published ReferencesWalter P. Chrysler, Jr. _Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr._. Richmond: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. 1941: pp. 35-36; no. 34. *Dimensions are not correct in this citation. Bertina S. Manning. _Paintings from the Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.: An Exhibition Organized by the Portland Art Museum, Oregon_. Portland: Portland Art Association. 1956. No. 64. Bertina S. Manning. _Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown Inaugural Exhibition_. Provincetown, Massachusetts: Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown. 07/1958: 9, 51; ill. b/w no. 11, 51. Eric M. Zafran and Mario Amaya. _Treasures from the Chrysler Museum at Norfolk and Walter P. Chrysler, Jr._. Tennessee Fine Arts Center at Cheekwood, Nashville. 1977. No. 21. Chrysler Museum. _Selections from the Permanent Collection: The Chrysler Musuem_. Norfolk, VA: Chrysler Museum of Art. 1982: 50. Pierre Rosenberg. _Chardin 1699-1779_. Published by The Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press. 1982: 333-334, no. 121. Else Marie Bukdahl. _Diderot, Critique d'Art_. Copenhague: Rosenkilde et Bagger. 1982: 231. Jefferson C. Harrison. _French Paintings from the Chrysler Museum_. The Chrysler Museum. 1986. No. 13, pp. 25-26. *See for further references. Jefferson C. Harrison, _The Chrysler Museum Handbook of the European and American Collections: Selected Paintings, Sculpture and Drawings_. Norfolk, VA: The Chrysler Museum, 1991, No. 56, 75, color illustration 75. Else Marie Bukdahl, and others. _Diderot, The Salons 1759-1781: The Birth of Modern Art Criticism_. Copenhagen: Kunstnere om Kunst, Edition Blondal, 1997, color plate no. 9. Bodo Vischer,"Boebachtungen zu Chardins Einflub auf die Stillebenmalerei im 19. Jahrhundert an Beispielen von Manet, Courbet und Cézanne," _Cézanne Picasso Braque der Beginn des Kubistischen Stillebens_. Basel: Öffentliche Kunstsammlung, 1998, 117-135, ill. 119. Christie's. _Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Art: Property from the Estate of Guy Bjorkman_. New York: Christie's. 05/08/2000: 17, fig. 2. Kosme de Barañano, Peter Weiermair, Luciano Caramel, Marga Paz, and Claudia Gian Ferrari with contributing authors. _Filippo de Pisis_. Valencia: Institut Valencià d'Art Modern. 2000: 20 David Stark, with contributions Laura L. Meixner and Linda Tarbox. _European Painting in the Tweed Museum of Art_. Duluth, Minnesota: Tweed Museum of Art, University of Minnesota. 2000: 66. Jeff Harrison, _Collecting with Vision: Treasures From the Chrysler Museum of Art_ (London: D. Giles Ltd., 2007), 36, fig. 30. ISBN: 978-0-940744-72-1 _Inspiring Impressionism, A Book of Postcards_ (Petaluma, CA,: Pomegranate Communications, Inc. 2007) Xavier Bray, et. al., _Inspiring Impressionism: The Impressionists and the Art of the Past_, exh. cat., Denver Art Museum, Colorado, 2007. 45, illus.22 ISBN: 978-0-914738-57-2 Susan Jaques, _A Love for the Beautiful: Discovering America's Hidden Art Museums_, (Guilford, CT: Globe Pequot Press, 2012), 125. Herbert Morris, _Disclosures: Essays on Art, Literature, and Philosophy_, (self-published, San Bernardino, CA, 2017), 328. Harriet Stone, _Crowning Glories: Netherlandish Realism and the French Imagination during the Reign of Louis XIV_, (University of Toronto Press: Buffalo, 2019), fig 7.3, p. 231. Alexis Merle du Bourg, _Chardin_ (Paris: Citadelles and Mazenod, 2020) 22-23, fig. 12; 324, fig. 294.