The Copper Cistern

In the early 1730s Chardin, known until then for still lifes, was beginning to put people into his kitchens, and this small panel sits right at that step. It shows a tall copper water cistern on a wooden stool, with a long ladle on the left, a bucket in front and a dark jug with its lid on the floor. The Louvre calls it a study for a painting now in Stockholm, dated 1733, where a maid fills a jug from the same kind of tap. The Swedish diplomat Carl Gustaf Tessin bought that picture at a Paris auction for the Swedish crown prince and princess. The museum in Stockholm says several objects in it came from Chardin's own home, the copper cistern among them. His signature is on the grey wall at the lower left.