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Lot Essay
This picture was formerly in the collection of Baron Nathaniel de Rothschild and his wife, Baroness Charlotte de Rothschild.
The Baroness was an accomplished artist in her own right and exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1879. She also cultivated an extensive collection of predominantly Old Master and Post-Impressionist paintings, but expressed a particular interest in the works of Jean Siméon Chardin. Her grandson, Henri de Rothschild, would continue her legacy, expanding the collection of Chardins and assembling one of the most varied groups of the artist’s works in private hands.
Although Nathaniel de Rothschild belonged to the British branch of the family, his marriage to Charlotte, of the French branch, reflected the close ties that united the two lineages. Their shared interest in Chardin, a painter long associated with French domestic virtue, possibly carried a distinctly patriotic dimension. As Harry W. Paul speculates, their collecting was driven not only by an appreciation for Chardin’s elegant still lifes, but also a desire to ‘do their bit to preserve the patrimoine [by] showing their aesthetic patriotism’ (‘Collecting Chardins, Charlotte and Henri de Rothschild’ in The Rothschild Archive: Review of the Year April 2004 – March 2005, London, p. 26).
The present picture is closely related to Philippe Rousseau’s Chardin and his Models, Table in an Array, and pays homage to Chardin’s The Attributes of the Arts and The Attributes of the Sciences, incorporating elements from both, namely the architectural bust from the former and the rolled scrolls from the latter. The canvas is dedicated to the Baroness, and the paint palette and brushes in the foreground are likely an allusion to her own artistic sensibilities.
This picture was confiscated from Henri de Rothschild in 1940 and subsequently restituted in 1946.
The Baroness was an accomplished artist in her own right and exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1879. She also cultivated an extensive collection of predominantly Old Master and Post-Impressionist paintings, but expressed a particular interest in the works of Jean Siméon Chardin. Her grandson, Henri de Rothschild, would continue her legacy, expanding the collection of Chardins and assembling one of the most varied groups of the artist’s works in private hands.
Although Nathaniel de Rothschild belonged to the British branch of the family, his marriage to Charlotte, of the French branch, reflected the close ties that united the two lineages. Their shared interest in Chardin, a painter long associated with French domestic virtue, possibly carried a distinctly patriotic dimension. As Harry W. Paul speculates, their collecting was driven not only by an appreciation for Chardin’s elegant still lifes, but also a desire to ‘do their bit to preserve the patrimoine [by] showing their aesthetic patriotism’ (‘Collecting Chardins, Charlotte and Henri de Rothschild’ in The Rothschild Archive: Review of the Year April 2004 – March 2005, London, p. 26).
The present picture is closely related to Philippe Rousseau’s Chardin and his Models, Table in an Array, and pays homage to Chardin’s The Attributes of the Arts and The Attributes of the Sciences, incorporating elements from both, namely the architectural bust from the former and the rolled scrolls from the latter. The canvas is dedicated to the Baroness, and the paint palette and brushes in the foreground are likely an allusion to her own artistic sensibilities.
This picture was confiscated from Henri de Rothschild in 1940 and subsequently restituted in 1946.