THE GOVERNESS
Jean Baptiste Simeon Chardin (1699-1779)
hen Chardin began to paint pictures he went into the French homes and painted pictures of brass pots and kettles, of fruits and vegetables. Then he took common scenes of life and gave us a number of pictures showing just what was going on in the homes and back yards.
The French people were not used to having an artist see beauty in the every-day things they were doing; artists had been painting the rich for the rich. Everybody began to love the pictures Chardin painted. This is a very simple story in "The Governess." The child—is it a boy or a girl?—is now ready to go to school. He—I believe he is a boy—is hearing some advice, and I do not think he is pleased, for he has a little frown on his face. His dress is peculiar. The French children two hundred years ago did not dress as you do to-day. He is the same kind of a child that you are, I am sure, and you and he would soon be great friends.
Chardin's color was so wonderful that one of his artist friends cried out: "O Chardin! it is not white, red, or black that you grind to powder on your palette; it is the air and the light that you take on the point of your brush and fix on canvas."
Chardin's pictures are as beautiful and bright to-day as they were when he painted them.
Fig. 39. The Governess. Chardin. Liechtenstein Gallery, Vienna
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