The Youth with a Violin
by CHARDIN, Jean-Baptiste-Siméon, Oil on canvas, 67 x 74 cm
In 1733 Chardin begins to return to the themes and formulas of the popular genre scenes of seventeenth-century Dutch painting prized by Parisian connoisseurs. Applying their realistic treatment to the bourgeois interiors of his time, Chardin depicts such everyday occupations as household chores and the upbringing of children. The moral character of these themes, in praise of the simple family life, contributed to dignifying the genre.