Jean-Siméon Chardin
, French, 1699-1779
Title
Les Tours de CartesDatec.1735
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions
31 x 39 cm
Credit LinePurchased, 1898
Object numberNGI.478
DescriptionChardin specialised in still-life and genre painting, both of which enjoyed a vogue in 18th century France. Card games became associated in art with idleness, vice and vanity. Here, a worldly young man wearing a tricorn hat mystifies two children with a card trick. His mockingly serious expression contrasts with the naïve young girl, who timidly places her hands on the table ledge, and the boy who watches him, perplexed. The attribution to Chardin is not fully accepted. However, the quality of the brushwork and the animated expressions of the girl and boy lead us to believe that it is by Chardin's own hand.ProvenanceInventaire Chardin, December 1779; 6 March 1780, Chardin sale, lot 16; Moitessier, 1871; purchased, 20-21 May 1898, Vicomtesse de Bondy sale, lot 183Exhibition HistorySalon du Louvre, Paris, 1739
French Art of the Eighteenth Century, Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, c. 1913
Centenary Exhibition, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, October - December 1964
France in the Eighteenth Century, Royal Academy of Arts, London, January-March 1968
Master European Paintings from the National Gallery of Ireland, Art Institute of Chicago, 6 June - 9 August 1992; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 19 September - 6 December 1992; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 13 January - 28 March 1993; IBM Gallery, New York, 27 April - 26 June 1993
Von Poussin bis Monet. Die Farben Frankreichs, The Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck, Remagen, 22 March - 6 September 2015; Bucerius Kunst Forum, Hamburg, 10 October 2015 - 17 January 2016
Label TextWhen Chardin painted this work he specialised in precisely painted genre scenes in the Dutch manner. A young girl is mesmerised by a card trick played by a relaxed-looking man. The boy appears somewhat sceptical, clutching his purse tightly. Several versions of this scene are known and were exhibited with a pendant picture of children playing a nursery game called 'Goose'. Pierre-Louis Surugue engraved the painting in 1744, adding a moralising caption warning against allowing oneself be deceived in love, as one could be tricked as easily as this child.
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