Grapes and Pomegranates

Chardin signed and dated this canvas in 1763 and made it as the companion to a still life with a brioche, which is also in the Louvre. A tall pitcher stands at the back, and in front of it pomegranates, bunches of grapes, a pear and two apples are gathered with a knife and two glasses. The picture's later life was less settled. By 1791 it was in Angers, in the collection of the marquis de Livois, whose paintings a local artist, Pierre Sentout, catalogued that year. When the Revolution came, the collection was seized, and only part of it was handed back to the family. In December 1811 this canvas came up at auction and went for a small sum, 79 livres, to a buyer the sale record names only as Bligni.