Still Life with Fish, Vegetables, Gougéres, Pots, and Cruets on a Table, Jean-Siméon Chardin
The original is in the collection of the Getty Museum, which has both a zoomable image, and a large (21MB) downloadable file available on their website. There is also a zoomable file on Google Art Project, and a downloadable version of that somewhat smaller file on Wikikedia Commons.
Though there are other still life painters that I admire greatly (Luis Meléndez springs to mind), there is something special for me in the still life paintings of 18th century French master Jean-Siméon Chardin.
Part of it is his mastery of painting, his subtle, harmonious compositions, brilliant command of edges and tactile surface qualities, but part of his appeal is ineffable — a rare sense of the suspension of time, and an almost magical suggestion that the ordinary is, in fact, extraordinary, if only we would slow down and look.
In a season frequently and too loudly declared to be “magical”, but often represented instead by the flashy special effects of billboard consumerism, perhaps there is still magic to be found in quiet moments with family and friends, and the simple pleasures of food.
