“Boy with Yulia”, Jean Baptiste Simeon Chardin – description of the painting

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Description of the picture:

The Boy with Yule – Jean Baptiste Simeon Chardin. 1738. Oil on canvas, sixty seven x 70 6 cm

   Why were the portraits of Chardin so admired and admired by the viewer? Being “chained” to aesthetic representations of those times (the first half of the 18th century), the painter nevertheless left a place for details close to reality. That is why the children in his paintings remain children. Even despite the wigs and strict camisoles with a shirt under the larynx. Here is this young hero from the painting “Boy with a Yule (spinning top)” with lively enthusiasm characteristic of a child, watching a little toy. A tender pink blush appeared on his curious face.

   It is curious that Jean Baptiste Simeon Chardin never called portraits his images of babies. Instead, he used the definition of “genre scene.” Like adults and kids, the painter depicted necessarily for some occupation. The action helped Chardin write emotions, focus on the inner world.

   The picture is dominated by a green spectrum. The masterful implementation of halftones allows not only to place accents (for example, a pink blush) in the work, but also to add additional elements, like an oblique sunbeam on wallpaper or a mirror table.

   The presented picture appeared at the exhibition in the Salon in one thousand seven hundred and thirty-eight years and was awarded a huge number of admired reviews. The popularity of the work was such that Chardin made several more paintings on this plot. Engravings by masters on this subject also enjoyed great demand. It is catchy that from time to time engravings were accompanied by philosophical or moralizing content. Naturally, Chardin had nothing to do with texts like “like a spinning top a man turns, giving himself entirely to the hands of Fate”. It was the philosophers who sought to educate and enlighten the public, addressing such heavyweight comparative maxims. The master wrote what he liked and because he considered it necessary."