Masterpieces from the World's Museums in the Hermitage
Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin's House of Cards from the National Art Gallery, Washington
9 November 2007 - 20 January 2008

The thirteenth series of World Museum Masterpieces at the Hermitage (Hall 233) will acquaint viewers with the House of Cards by Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin which was part of the State Hermitage Museum's collection for more than 150 years, but in 1931 along with some twenty other masterpieces from the museum was acquired by American collector Andrew W. Mellon and is now part of his collection at the National Art Gallery in Washington.

Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin (1699-1779) was famous as a past master of strict, modest still lives and possessed a brilliant eye for colour. He is no less famous as a genre artist. The quiet and calm world of simple domestic items and daily activities, is peeled away from the garishness of worldly trinkets, caught in mid movement and given by Chardin a timeless, enclosed setting, acquiring by his brush a truly epic grandeur. The artist also executed children's genre. The artist often repeated and created variations of his compositions, including the construction of a house of cards. Specialists divide them into four basic variations: the composition with a horizontal format, known by the engraving of Pierre Filloeul; the version located in the Louvre; the picture located at the National Art Gallery; and finally the version kept at the National Gallery in London, depicting the son of a Parisian merchant and friend Monsieur Le Noir.

Specialists are inclined to believe that the picture from Washington was displayed by Chardin along with another seven genre paintings at the Salon exhibition in 1737. The House of Cards was displayed along with a different theme that the master never returned to, such as Girl with Shuttlecock, a pair which remained together for more than 100 years. After the exhibition, the paintings disappear from the record and in the first half of the 18th century they are not mentioned in any Parisian collections. The circumstances and the period of the canvas' possession by its subsequent owner, Heinrich von Bruhl (1700-1763), are unknown to us.

Following Brühl's death his entire art collection was acquired by Empress Catherine the Great. In 1774 two of Chardin's pictures were included in the first printed catalogue of the imperial painting collection with a touching evaluation of their quality: "N 407 Young girl playing with a shuttlecock. The painting is very endearing with the naivety of the figure. N 408 Young boy, making a house of cards. This painting is one of the most enchanting with its faithfulness to life".

In 1849 in connection with the organisation of a public museum in the Imperial Hermitage, by order of Nicholas I, an examination and classification of 4,500 paintings was undertaken, which were accumulating in the Picture Gallery: 1219 works of art were to be sold at an auction in 1854. Among them were included several truly valuable works, two of which were by Chardin, Girl with Shuttlecock and Still life with Attributes of the Arts (the last one was returned to the State Hermitage in 1926). The Girl remained in a Russian private collection for another twenty years before leaving Russia for ever. In 1905 she settled down in a Parisian collection with her final owners, the Barons Rothschild.

The House of Cards remained with the State Hermitage Museum 60 years longer than the Girl with Shuttlecock, however, this story also has its own tragic end. In 1930 negotiations began between the People's Commissariat department for Foreign Trade, Antikvariat, and the Noddler company, which was purchasing paintings on behalf of the Minister of Finance for the United States of America, Andrew W. Mellon. On 20 March 1931 an order arrived instructing the State Hermitage Museum to immediately hand over Chardin's House of Cards to Antikvariat. The order was carried out immediately, within three days, on 23 March. So along with some twenty other masterpieces from the Hermitage it became part of Andrew W. Mellon's collection and with the formation of the National Art Gallery in Washington (1937) they were displayed on its walls. The exhibition of the House of Cards by Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin is the fourth display of the State Hermitage Museum's lost masterpieces, which are held at the National Art Gallery in Washington.

An illustrated booklet has been prepared by the State Hermitage Museum Publishing House with text written by the curator of the exhibition, Ekaterina Deryabina, a senior researcher at the Department of Western European Art.

The House of Cards
1737
Larger view