But Chardin bloomed early and flowered long. For 19 years he oversaw the hanging of their salons and exhibited regularly in those shows. He was held in high esteem, made good money and died at the age of 80. When he ventures into allegory, as he does in several paintings here, things get hollow. You wonder if you'd even notice a few of these paintings if they were hanging amid the collection of some fancy ch teau.
Time flows, and yet nothing ever happens.
His touch is never aggressive or insistent, unlike Rembrandt's, though the painters are often compared. His color isn't as gorgeous, or his light as spellbinding as Vermeer's, and he lacks the emotional depth of Watteau. However, when you do alight on a Chardin that does it to you, it really does it. I melted in front of the best basket of wild strawberries I've ever seen. Chardin can make you experience the utter simplicity of it all, and provide an absolute affirmation of life's little joys.