The Scullery Maid

c. 1738

Jean Siméon Chardin

Painter, French, 1699 - 1779

A pale-skinned young woman stands holding a long-handled pot over an open barrel in this vertical painting. The woman faces our left in profile and leans slightly over the thigh-high barrel. The barrel is tinged with moss green, and it has a hole in the side facing us. The woman’s smooth cheeks and lips are tinged with rose red. She has a slender nose, and she looks off to our left with brown eyes. Her jacket, long skirt, and cap are all white, and her apron is light peach. A gold object, like a pendant or bell, dangles from a teal-blue ribbon around her neck. The long handle of the pot is tucked under her bent left arm, and she grasps the handle where it attaches to the pan. Her right hand reaches into the pot, which dips down beneath the lip of the barrel. The woman and the barrel take up most of the height of the composition. Clustered on the floor to the left of the barrel are three vessels, including a tall cylindrical container painted in copper brown with crimson-red streaks, a large brass pot lying on its side so we see its shiny interior, and brick-red pan with a long iron handle that ends in a hook. To our right, a peach-colored clay pot with bands of forest and sage green sits on the floor just behind the woman, with its short handle angled to our right. Light coming from the upper left glints on the edges and interiors of the pots and illuminates the woman. The floor is washed with laurel green and spruce blue, with strokes of mustard yellow. The back wall is mottled in caramel brown and smoke gray.

Media Options

This object’s media is free and in the public domain. Read our full Open Access policy for images.
On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 53

Artwork overview

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Possibly Jacques Augustin de Silvestre [1719-1809], Paris; possibly (his estate sale, F.L. Regnault-Delalande, Paris, 28 February - 25 March 1811, no. 13, paired with Return from Market);[1] Laneuville. Godfrey von Preyer, Vienna. William Andrews Clark [1839-1925], New York; bequest 1926 to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2014 by the National Gallery of Art.
[1] Paul Rosenberg, Chardin, exh. cat. Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; Kunstmuseum et Kunsthalle, Düsseldorf; Royal Academy of Arts, London; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Paris, 1999: 230, no. 53.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1978

  • The William A. Clark Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1978.

1989

  • The William A. Clark Collection: Treasures of a Copper King, Yellowstone Art Center, Billings; Montana Historical Society, Helena, 1989, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

1999

  • Chardin 1699-1779, Galeries National du Grand Palais, Paris; Kunstmuseum am Ehrenhof, Dusseldorf; Royal Academy of Arts, London; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1999-2000, no. 53.

2001

  • Antiquities to Impressionism: The William A. Clark Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 2001-2002, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

2003

  • The Age of Watteau, Chardin, and Fragonard: Masterpieces of French Genre Painting, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Altes Museum, Berlin, 2003-2004, no. 36, repro.

2008

  • Inspiring Impressionism: The Impressionists and the Art of the Past, Denver Art Museum, 2008, repro.

2012

  • Taking Time: Chardin's "Boy building a House of Cards" and other paintings, Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire, 2012, no. 19, repro.

Bibliography

1925

  • Carroll, Dana H. Catalogue of Objects of Fine Art and Other Properties at the Home of William Andrews Clark, 962 Fifth Avenue. Part I. Unpublished manuscript, n.d. (1925): 191, no. 225.

1932

  • Corcoran Gallery of Art. Illustrated Handbook of the W.A. Clark Collection. Washington, 1932: repro. 24, 39, no. 2039, as Woman with Saucepan.

1933

  • Wildenstein, Georges. Chardin. Paris, 1933: no. 16.

1979

  • Rosenberg, Pierre. Chardin, 1699-1779. Exh. cat. Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; Cleveland Museum of Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Cleveland, 1979: 249.

1983

  • Rosenberg, Pierre. L'opera completa di Chardin. Milan, 1983: no. 114B.

  • Rosenberg, Pierre. Chardin: New Thoughts. Kansas, 1983: 58, 68, note 69.

1999

  • Rosenberg, Pierre, and Renaud Temperini. Chardin. Paris, 1999: no. 53.

2001

  • Coyle, Laura, and Dare Myers Hartwell, eds. Antiquities to Impressionism: The William A. Clark Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art. Washington, DC, 2001: 77.

2003

  • Bailey, Colin B., Philip Conisbee, and Thomas W. Gaehtgens. The age of Watteau, Chardin, and Fragonard: masterpieces of French genre painting. Edited by Colin B. Bailey. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; National Gallery of Art, Washington; Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museum zu Berlin. New Haven, 2003: no. 36.

2012

  • Carey, Juliet et al. Taking Time: Chardin's Boy Building a House of Cards and Other Paintings. Exh. cat. Waddeston Manor, Buckinghamshire, 2012. London, 2012: no. 19.

Inscriptions

center left between face and top of barrel: Ch[ardin] / 17[38] (recorded in 1948 as: Chardin / 1738)

Wikidata ID

Q20177905

You may be interested in

Loading Results