JEAN – BAPTISTE – SIMÉON CHARDIN (PARIS, 1699 – PARIS, 1779) The Magician’s Box 1730 Oil on canvas 37.3 x 45 cm Signed and dated indistinctly, lower centre: ‘J Chardin / 1730 ’ Provenance Private collection, United Kingdom. Gösta Stenman (1888–1947), in 1938, and by inheritance to Bertha Stenman (1890–1969), Stockholm, in 1958. Anonymous sale, Norden Auktioner AB, Stockholm, 29 May 1997, lot 61. Anonymous sale, Christie’s, London, 8 December 2004, lot 48, where it was acquired by the present owner. Bibliography E. Goldschmidt, Jean – Baptiste Siméon Chardin, Stockholm, 1945, pp. 66–71, fig. 16, E. Goldschmidt, Jean – Baptiste Siméon Chardin, Copenhagen, 1947, unpaginated, fig. 17, P. Rosenberg, *Chardin: New Thoughts. The Franklin Murphy Lectures I*, Kansas, 1983, pp. 78–83. P. Rosenberg, The Complete Paintings of Chardin, Paris, 1983, p. 79, no. 50. E. Launay, The Goncourt Brothers: Collectors of Drawings, Paris, 1991, p. 253, no. 46. Exhibitions Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, ‘Stenmans 1913–1938’, 1938, no. 9; Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, ‘France through the Eyes of Artists’, 9 May – 2 June 1941, no. 299; Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, 100 Years of French Art, 15 August – 9 November 1958, no. 77, listed as ‘ unknown artist ’ ; Paris, Grand Palais; Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art and Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Chardin, 29 January – 19 November 1979, no. 141, listed as ‘Chardin (?)’ (this painting was exhibited only in Paris). What sort of pantomime are his characters performing? Seeming to move within the theatrical setting of a puppet theatre, they gesticulate emphatically as if overacting a popular skit. The woman holding a large box under her arm suddenly turns her face towards us, her hand outstretched in a gesture of horror, as if to shield herself from the sight of the figure who, at the back of the composition, is smoking at his window. To her right, a young boy has opened the shutter, revealing the smoker. An impassive witness to this scene, a figure on the left leans against a barrel, whilst a curious spaniel lifts its muzzle towards the woman. The background opens onto a landscape featuring a windmill, whilst, in the foreground, a basket and tableware are arranged to form an unusual still life. Probably an illustration of an episode from a popular novel or a now-forgotten 18th-century proverb, the scene remains enigmatic.