Still Life with a Ray

A ray or skate lies in this still life from 1743 at Dumbarton Oaks, connecting to Chardin's celebrated La Raie at the Louvre — the painting that first established his reputation when it was shown at the Académie Royale in 1728. Chardin's repeated return to the ray as a subject reflects its particular visual qualities: the gutted fish displays its internal structure with a visceral immediacy that is simultaneously disturbing and beautiful. By 1743, Chardin had been painting for nearly two decades and had long since secured his place among the most respected French painters. The Dumbarton Oaks research library and collection in Washington, with its strength in Byzantine and Pre-Columbian art, holds this Chardin as a rare example of European eighteenth-century painting in an otherwise specialist collection.

The ray's distinctive flat form and translucent flesh create a subject quite different from Chardin's more common game animals. His rendering captures the play of light across the wet, smooth surface with characteristic precision. The surrounding objects provide textural contrast to the fish's distinctive material qualities.