The Attentive Nurse

Chardin showed this small picture at the Paris Salon of 1747, at a moment when French taste ran to the light, flirtatious scenes of Boucher and the court. Chardin painted the opposite. A servant sits quietly preparing food for someone recovering from illness, cutting into a soft-boiled egg, a jug and a covered dish beside her on the table. Nothing happens, and that is the point. He gives the plain white cloth, the egg, and the earthenware the same patient care another painter would spend on silk and jewels. Visitors of the day were struck by how still and true it felt. He first exhibited it under a title that simply named the food set out for a convalescent.