Chardin

Paul George KonodyProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.5

Word count: 63K words
Chapters: 7

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Chardin by Paul G. KonodyAuthor: Konody, Paul G. (Paul George), 1872-1933,Language: English, Class: ND: Fine Arts: Painting, Release Date: Jan 20, 2013

Editor's review

Chardin is a critical biography by Paul G. Konody (1872–1933) of the French painter Chardin, an art text in Project Gutenberg's public-domain eBook collection. Konody was an art critic active in the early twentieth century, and his writing tends to draw out the painter's life and the tastes of the period through analysis of works rather than piling up chronologies. The book's value lies in the image of Chardin it offers from the perspective of early modern art criticism—attentive both to the everyday texture of still lifes and genre scenes and to the painter's place in the context of eighteenth-century French art. It is best read as a sample of "how an early critic saw Chardin" rather than as contemporary scholarly consensus. The book discusses specific works and makes stylistic judgments, so it is well suited to reading alongside an art album or images of museum holdings; visual material significantly improves comprehension. Note that this is the original English text and the book is quite old, so some art-historical ideas and terms are now distant from contemporary research; readers should keep a discerning eye.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in Chardin and eighteenth-century French painting
Students of art history who need early critical texts for reference
Art lovers who enjoy reading alongside an art album
Readers interested in how art criticism is written and in period perspectives

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking contemporary scholarly consensus or an overview of the latest research
Readers who need a Chinese translation and do not want to read the original English
Readers expecting high-resolution plates or album-quality printing

Reading tips

Keep images of a few of Chardin's representative works at hand and look at them when you reach the relevant passages.
Read the author's judgments against contemporary art-historical accounts, note similarities and differences, and build your own analytical notes.
After finishing each chapter, summarize the author's core view of Chardin's style in a paragraph to test your understanding.
If used in class, select a passage of criticism from the book and have students discuss the period limitations of its perspective.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book an art album or a text commentary? Does it have images?

This book is primarily text commentary and is a critical biography in nature; the Project Gutenberg electronic edition generally does not include high-resolution plates or complete album-quality illustrations. When reading, it is advisable to prepare your own images of Chardin's works and look at them alongside the works and stylistic descriptions mentioned in the book, which makes the author's judgments more intuitive to understand. If you are looking for an album experience centered on images, this book is not suitable.

What are the characteristics of the author Konody's critical stance?

Konody was an art critic of the early twentieth century, and his writing carries the tastes and concerns of criticism in that era; it tends to start from the texture of works, everyday subjects, and the painter's temperament rather than adopting the social-history or technical-analysis frameworks common in contemporary art history. Readers can treat it as a "sample of early criticism" for observing how the image of Chardin has been narrated in different periods, and should not cite it directly as contemporary scholarly consensus.

Is the original English hard to read? What background knowledge is needed?

This is the original English text, and the book is quite old, so its sentence patterns and art terminology bear the marks of their time; the reading difficulty is moderate. General English reading ability is enough to get started, but if you are unfamiliar with the background of eighteenth-century French painting, understanding evaluations of specific works may be difficult. It is advisable to learn about Chardin's life and major works before reading, and to have an art terminology dictionary or reference materials on hand; reading will then be much smoother.

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About the author

Paul George Konody Author · Hungarian · 1872–1933

Paul George Konody (1872–1933) was a Hungarian-born British art critic and art historian. Born in Budapest, he later settled in London and wrote for many years for the Daily Mail and The Observer. An authority on the authentication of Renaissance art, he exposed the claim by Bode that the bust Flora was by Leonardo da Vinci, and he was influential in both connoisseurship and criticism. Four of his works are held in this collection: Delacroix, Chardin, Raphael and Filippo Lippi. They centre on major European painters and combine critical biography with appreciation. He also wrote lives of Raphael and Velázquez. His writing addresses general readers and stresses stylistic analysis and the broader context of art history. Public information on his life and work is limited, and the present account rests on the facts given above.