Still Life with Dishcloth, a Pot, a Plate, a Skimmer and Meat on a Hook

Kitchen implements and a piece of meat on a hook compose this still life from 1734 in the Gustaf Adolf Sparre collection, painted when Chardin was at the height of his early kitchen still life production. The meat hook — a butcher's implement showing a raw cut — brings a direct confrontation with food as material substance rather than decorative arrangement, typical of Chardin's willingness to engage with the less refined aspects of kitchen provisioning. The Sparre collection, formed by the Swedish nobleman Gustaf Adolf Sparre, represents the diplomatic and aristocratic networks through which French eighteenth-century paintings reached Scandinavian private collections. The combination of this work with its companion in the same collection allows the Sparre group to document a specific aspect of Chardin's kitchen still life production.

The hung meat creates a vertical accent against the horizontal arrangement of cooking vessels, with the dishcloth providing a soft, white element that balances the darker tones of the implements. Chardin's handling of each surface—the cloth's folds, the pot's glaze, the meat's raw surface—demonstrates his comprehensive command of material rendering. The palette is warm and restrained.