Le Panier de fraises des bois

A basket of wild strawberries sits on a stone ledge in this exquisite still life from 1761 at the Louvre, one of Chardin's most intimate and perfectly realized compositions. The small red berries, their fragility and transience contrasting with the solidity of the basket and ledge, create a meditation on the beauty of simple, perishable things. The painting was rediscovered and celebrated by the Goncourt brothers in the nineteenth century, becoming an icon of Chardin's art.

The strawberries' tiny, luminous forms are rendered with extraordinary precision, each berry catching light differently. Chardin builds up the deep red color through layered glazes that give the fruit an inner glow. The white cloth, the carnation, and the glass of water that accompany the berries create a microcosm of Chardin's sensitivity to different surfaces and transparencies.