Jean-Siméon Chardin, 'The Water Cistern ('La Fontaine')', 1733 or later (possibly 1737-9)
About the work
Overview
A maid, her face partially hidden by her white bonnet, draws water from a large copper cistern in a scullery with a cobbled floor. As she bends forward, her straight back leads us to an open doorway on the right through which we can see another servant talking to a young child, who stands before yet another door. The second servant also wears a white bonnet and her pose almost mirrors that of the woman filling the jug.
The device of a view through an open doorway to the side of the picture was often used by Dutch and Flemish artists, but Chardin’s painting is a still life as well as a scene of domestic life. In contrast to the human presence on the right, the left-hand side of the picture is filled with household objects. Full of detailed observation, this is a glimpse of servants’ lives ‘below stairs’, which were very different from those of the wealthy collectors who bought Chardin’s pictures.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- The Water Cistern ('La Fontaine')
- Artist
- Jean-Siméon Chardin
- Artist dates
- 1699 - 1779
- Date made
- 1733 or later (possibly 1737-9)
- Medium and support
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 37.5 × 44.5 cm
- Acquisition credit
- Bought, 1898
- Inventory number
- NG1664
- Location
- Room 35
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Frame
- 18th-century French Frame
Provenance
Possibly the ‘tableau peint sur toile de Chardin representant une femme qui tire de l’eau à une fontaine’ recorded in the posthumous inventory dated 23 October 1767 of the abbé Gougenot (1724–1767); possibly the picture sold by Jean‐Denis Lempereur (1701–1779), Chariot, Paris, 24 May 1773 and following, lot 96, 205 livres to ‘Cochin’, although this has been assumed to be another autograph version of the picture now in a Paris private collection; probably the picture exhibited later that year at the 1773 Salon as owned by Jacques‐Augustin de Silvestre (1719–1809); Jacques‐Augustin de Silvestre’s posthumous sale, Geoffroy, Paris, 28 February 1811, lot 12, 100 francs to ‘Laneuville’; Revenaz, Paris, 19 December 1817, lot 11, 50 francs 5 centimes to P. Simari (or Psimari); by 1848 in the collection of Louis‐Auguste, Baron Schwiter (1805–1889); Schwiter sale, Chevallier, Paris, 3 May 1886, lot 7, 6,000 francs (in fact bought in); Schwiter sale, Chevallier, Paris, 26–28 March 1890, lot 2, 3,900 francs; offered to the National Gallery by Georges Sortais on 1 May 1898 for 20,000 francs; bought 7 June 1898 for 18,000 francs (£721).
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Humphrey Wine, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Eighteenth Century French Paintings’, London 2018; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Bibliography
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1773Lempereur, Catalogue d'une riche collection de tableaux, de peintures à gouazze & au pastel, de desseins précieux montés & non-montés, d'estampes choisies en feuilles et en recueils, le tout des trois écoles, du cabinet de M***, Paris, 24 May 1773
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1848Association des artistes, Explication des ouvrages de peinture, sculpture et architecture: Exposés a la Galérie Bonne-Nouvelle, Paris… Jan. 1848, Paris 1848
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1848L.C. Ris, 'Troisième exposition de l'Association des Artistes', L'Artiste, XI/12-13, 1848, pp. 477-80, 493-6
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1853P.J. Mariette, Abecedario de P.J. Mariette et autres notes inédites de cet amateur sur les arts et les artistes […] annoté par MM. Ph. de Chennevières et A. de Montaiglon, vol. 2, eds P. de Chennevières and A. de Montaiglon, Paris 1853
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1876E. Bocher, 'Jean-Baptiste Siméon Chardin', in Les gravures françaises du XVIIIe siècle, Paris 1876, vol. 3
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1880E. de Goncourt and J. de Goncourt, L'art du dix-huitième siècle, 3rd edn, Paris 1880
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1886'Mouvement des arts: Collection de M. le Baron Schwiter', Chronique des Arts et de la Curiosité, 1886
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1890'Mouvement des arts: Collection Schwiter', Chronique des Arts et de la Curiosité, 14, 1890
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1898E.F.S. Dilke, 'L'art français au Guildhall de Londres en 1898', Gazette des beaux-arts, XX, 1898, pp. 321-36
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1898London, National Gallery Archive: Report of the Director of the National Gallery for the Year 1898, 1898
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1899E.F.S. Dilke, French Painters of the Eighteenth Century, London 1899
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1907A. Dayot and J. Guiffrey, Jean-Baptiste Siméon Chardin, 1699-1779, Paris 1907
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1908A. Dayot and L. Vaillat, L'Oeuvre de J.-B.-S. Chardin et de J.-H. Fragonard, Paris 1908
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1925É. Dacier, La gravure en France au XVIIIe siècle: La gravure de genre et de moeurs, Paris 1925
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1933G. Wildenstein, Chardin, Paris 1933
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1933C.N. Cochin, 'Essai sur la vie de Chardin, 1780', in G. Wildenstein, Chardin, Paris 1933, pp. 40-46
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1946Martin Davies, National Gallery Catalogues: French School, London 1946
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1957Martin Davies, National Gallery Catalogues: French School, 2nd edn (revised), London 1957
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1959G. Wildenstein, 'Le décor de la vie de Chardin d'après ses tableau', Gazette des beaux-arts, LIII, 1959, pp. 98-106
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1963G. Wildenstein, Chardin, Zürich 1963
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1969G. Wildenstein and D. Wildenstein, Chardin, trans. S. Gilbert, revised edn, Oxford 1969
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1973E. Snoep-Rietsma, 'Chardin and the Bourgeois Ideals of His Time', Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek, XXIV, 1973, pp. 147-243
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1977H.W. Janson (ed.), Catalogues of the Paris Salon 1673 to 1881, New York 1977
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1979P. Rosenberg, Chardin, 1699-1779 (exh. cat. Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, 29 January- 30 April 1979), Paris 1979
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1981N. Bryson, Word and Image: French Painting of the Ancien Régime, Cambridge 1981
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1983P. Rosenberg, Tout l'œuvre peint de Chardin, Paris 1983
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1983R. Démoris and L. Marschutz, 'Chardin ou la cuisine en peinture', Dix-huitième siècle, XV, 1983, pp. 137-54
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1985P. Conisbee, Chardin, Oxford 1985
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1987P. Rosenberg, 'Chardin Studies', The Burlington Magazine, CXXIX/1007, 1987, pp. 116-8
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1990P. Grate, French Paintings, vol. 2, Eighteenth Century, Stockholm 1990
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1994M.R. Michel, Chardin, Paris 1994
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1999P. Rosenberg and R. Temperini, Chardin: Suivi du catalogue des oeuvres, Paris 1999
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1999H. Guicharnaud, 'Un collectionneur parisien, ami de Greuze et de Pigalle, l'abbé Louis Gougenot (1724-1767)', Gazette des beaux-arts, CXXXIII, 1999, pp. 49-51
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1999K. Schrenk, Jean Siméon Chardin, 1699-1779: Werk, Herkunft, Wirkung (exh. cat. Staatliche Kunsthalle, 4 June 1999 - 22 August 1999), Karlsruhe 1999
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2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
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2003A.R. Greely, 'Chardin, Time and Mastery', Word and Image, XIX/4, 2003, pp. 281-95
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2005R. Démoris, 'Inside/interiors: Chardin's Images of the Family', Art History, XXVIII/4, 2005, pp. 442-67
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2006P. Conisbee, 'Two Newly Discovered Chardins for Toledo', The Burlington Magazine, CXLVIII/1238, 2006, pp. 325-7
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2006Y. Fauchois et al., Lumières! Un héritage pour demain (exh. cat. Bibliothèque Nationale de France, 1 March - 28 May 2006), Paris 2006
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2018Wine, Humphrey, National Gallery Catalogues: The Eighteenth Century French Paintings, London 2018
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.
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Not on display