Art Institute of ChicagoPublic domain

The White Tablecloth

Jean Siméon Chardin · c. 1731–32

Provenance

Ownership history

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.

Recorded by Art Institute of Chicago.

Exhibitions

Exhibition history

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.

Literature

Published references

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.

Comparables