Jean-Siméon Chardin, 'The House of Cards', about 1740-1
About the work
Overview
A young boy stands at a small wooden table fully absorbed in building a house out of playing cards. He is Jean-Alexandre Le Noir, whose father, Jean-Jacques Le Noir, was a furniture dealer and cabinet-maker, who commissioned several paintings from Chardin.
The theme of a child building a house of cards was a familiar one in which the delicately balanced cards represent the fragile nature of human endeavour. Pictures of this subject were often accompanied by moralising verses, as was Chardin’s painting when it was engraved. But there may also be a family connection. As a maker of fine furniture, Monsieur Le Noir may have hoped his son would follow him into the business. The boy’s card building is perhaps not just a game but may also be an exercise in sound methods of construction.
The picture is one of four identified versions of The House of Cards painted by Chardin.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- The House of Cards (Portrait of Jean-Alexandre Le Noir)
- Artist
- Jean-Siméon Chardin
- Artist dates
- 1699 - 1779
- Date made
- about 1740-1
- Medium and support
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 60.3 × 71.8 cm
- Inscription summary
- Signed
- Acquisition credit
- Bequeathed by Mrs Edith Cragg, as part of the John Webb Bequest, 1925
- Inventory number
- NG4078
- Location
- Room 35
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Frame
- 18th-century French Frame
Provenance
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.
Exhibition history
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2012Taking Time: Chardin's 'Boy building a House of Cards' and other paintingsWaddesdon Manor (National Trust)28 March 2012 - 15 July 2012
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2019A Backward Glance: Giorgio Morandi and the Old MastersMuseo Guggenheim Bilbao12 April 2019 - 6 October 2019
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2021Masterpiece Tour 2021Oriel Davies Gallery10 July 2021 - 25 September 2021The Beacon Museum1 October 2021 - 23 January 2022Carmarthenshire County Museum31 January 2022 - 1 May 2022
Bibliography
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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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1904R. Petrucci, 'Exhibition Review: The French Exhibition at Brussels', The Burlington Magazine, IV/12, 1904, pp. 217-8
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1925T. Bodkin, 'Chardin in the London and Dublin National Galleries', The Burlington Magazine, XLVII/269, 1925, pp. 93-4
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1925C. Holmes, 'New Pictures at the National Gallery', The Burlington Magazine, XLVII/268, 1925, pp. 33-5
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1933G. Wildenstein, Chardin, Paris 1933
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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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1957F. Russell-Smith, 'Sleeve-Buttons of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries', The Connoisseur, CXXXIX/559, 1957
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1969G. Wildenstein and D. Wildenstein, Chardin, trans. S. Gilbert, revised edn, Oxford 1969
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1972D. Chapeaurouge, 'Chardins Kinderbilder und die Emblematik', Actes du XXIIe Congrès International d'Histoire de l'Art, Budapest 1969, II, 1972, pp. 51-6
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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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1978M. Kemp, 'A Date for Chardin's Lady Taking Tea', The Burlington Magazine, CXX/898, 1978, pp. 22-5
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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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1981M. Fried, Absorption and Theatricality: Painting and Beholder in the Age of Diderot, Berkeley 1981
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1983P. Rosenberg, Tout l'œuvre peint de Chardin, Paris 1983
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1985P. Conisbee, Chardin, Oxford 1985
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1992M. James, Engaging Images: 'practical Criticism' and Visual Art, London 1992
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1994M.R. Michel, Chardin, Paris 1994
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1995G. Edizel, Jean-Siméon Chardin: Seeing, Playing, Forgetting, and the Practice of Modern Imitation, Ann Arbor 1995
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1999P. Rosenberg and R. Temperini, Chardin: Suivi du catalogue des oeuvres, Paris 1999
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1999P. Rosenberg and R. Temperini, Chardin, Paris 1999
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1999P. Rosenberg et al., Chardin (exh. cat. Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, 7 September - 22 November 1999; Kunstmuseum im Ehrenhof, 5 December 1999 - 20 February 2000; Royal Academy of Arts, 11 March - 29 May 2000; Metropolitan Museum of Art, 27 June - 3 September 2000), Paris 1999
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2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
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2001J.D. Herbert, 'A Picture of Chardin's Making', Eighteenth-Century Studies, XXXIV/2, 2001, pp. 251-74
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2003C.B. Bailey and P. Conisbee, The Age of Watteau, Chardin and Fragonard: Masterpieces of French Genre Painting (exh. cat. National Gallery of Canada, 6 June - 7 September 2003; National Gallery of Art, Washington, 12 October 2003 - 11 January 2004; Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, 8 February - 9 May 2004), New Haven 2003
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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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2018Wine, Humphrey, National Gallery Catalogues: The Eighteenth Century French Paintings, London 2018
Frame
This is an eighteenth-century French pastel frame. Carved in oak and water-gilded, the frame’s back edge features a cabochon (egg-and-nest) motif. Twisted leaves are interspersed with flowers on the inwardly curved top edge of the moulding. This is followed by a wide reverse ogee profile, leading to a narrow, astragal moulding that steps down to a sanded flat. The sight edge is adorned with a motif in the style of Jean Berain – a designer at the court of Louis XIV – ending with leaves at the corners. Tooling was used by a Répareur to embellish the carved background, mainly with cross-hatching and fine lines.
During the reign of Louis XV, pastel portraits gained immense popularity in Paris, leading to the creation of a distinctive style of frame specifically designed for works on paper, known as the ‘pastel frame’. These frames were typically linear and featured shallow rebates to securely hold the artwork. Supported by Mr and Mrs Alan Horan in 2006, this pastel frame for The House of Cards was acquired to complement the reframing of Chardin’s The Young Schoolmistress.
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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