Nature morte au lapin et à la perdrix

A dead rabbit and a partridge are arranged on a stone ledge in this early game still life from 1727 at the Louvre, one of Chardin's first mature paintings. The young Chardin had gained admission to the Académie Royale in 1728 partly on the strength of such game pieces, which demonstrated his remarkable ability to render animal textures with unprecedented naturalism. The Louvre's collection of Chardin's earliest works traces the emergence of one of France's most original painters.

The game animals are rendered with the painstaking attention to texture that would become Chardin's signature—the soft underfur of the rabbit contrasting with the harder feathers of the partridge. His early technique is somewhat tighter than his later, more freely handled work, with each detail precisely observed. The stone ledge and neutral background demonstrate the spare compositional approach he would refine throughout his career.