MASP

Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin

Portrait of Auguste Gabriel Godefroy (Jeune Ecolier qui Joue au Toton), 1741

  • Author:
    Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin
  • Bio:
    Paris, França, 1699-Paris, França ,1779
  • Title:
    Portrait of Auguste Gabriel Godefroy (Jeune Ecolier qui Joue au Toton)
  • Date:
    1741
  • Medium:
    Óleo sobre tela
  • Dimensions:
    64,5 x 76,5 x 2,5 cm
  • Credit line:
    Compra, 1958
  • Object type:
    Pintura
  • Inventory number:
    MASP.00053
  • Photography credits:
    João Musa

TEXTS



Chardin was one of the great names of 18th-century French painting, treating the themes of daily life in a profound and poetic way. In 1728, he was conferred the title of still-life painter at the Académie Royale de Paris. With time, the artist began to produce genre paintings, made for the houses of the nobility and the bourgeois—portraits, domestic scenes, children or couples in love. The boy in Portrait of Auguste Gabriel Godefroy was a son of a jeweler and banker for whom Chardin made many other works. In this scene, he is watching a spinning top, distracted from his studies, oblivious to the books, inkwell and parchment on the desk. The extraordinary light that falls on the boy traces a diagonal line on the wall in the background, lending volume to the composition. The half-open drawer in the foreground, with a chalk holder, adds depth to the desk. The theme of childhood education was recurrent in the French painting of the period. The spinning top can be seen as symbolizing the changeable nature of children and of luck, as well as the unstable balance between the various forces that govern human destiny, perfectly represented in the child’s toy.

— MASP Curatorial Team, 2015

Source: Adriano Pedrosa (org.), Pocket MASP, São Paulo: MASP, 2020.





The version of The Child with a Teetotum, Portrait of Auguste Gabriel Godefroy that is now at the Louvre was exhibited at the Salon of 1738 (n. 116) titled Portrait du Fils de M. Godefroy, joaillier, appliqué à voir tourner un toton. In L’art du XVIIIe siècle (1881, I, p. 181), Edmond and Jules de Goncourt mention this portrait and virtually use the same wording to describe it: “A small painting representing the portrait of a boy, the son of jeweler Mr. Godefroy, who is absorbed in spinning a whipping top”. According to Leprieur’s investigations, reported by Rosenberg, Auguste Gabriel was the son of Charles Godefroy, a banker and jeweler who died in 1748. He was ten years younger than his brother Charles, who would later become an enthusiastic Maecenas and art collector. As early as 1736 Auguste Gabriel, still a young boy of 8, was portrayed by Jean Baptiste Massé in a redink drawing, beside his brother and father in the imposing family library, and around 1735 his brother Charles had already posed for what is considered “the first real portrait by Chardin” (Conisbee 1985, p. 111). Born in 1728, Auguste Gabriel became an écuyer (squire) and general controller for the Navy. An enthusiastic admirer of painting, he purchased several pictures for his father’s collection in addition to two important Watteau works, which are currently at the Louvre (Rosemberg 1979, p. 11). In 1745 the portrait was part of the collection of the famous amateur Chevalier de la Roque, who had sponsored Watteau, and for whom Chardin probably painted in 1741, that is, three years after he had painted the first version for the Godefroy family – currently at the Louvre. There are a few variations between these two portraits as, for instance, the position of the paper roll, which in the first version is depicted in full. From an analysis of these variations one can infer that the 1742 engraving by Lépicié (Bocher, p. 52, n. 5o; reproduced in Norman 1901, p. 125) used the Masp version as a model. This engraving was mentioned in Mercure de France, in November of 1742, p. 25o6. According to Norman (1901, p. 49), some time in the past a “repetition” of this work was part of the collection of a certain Dr. Boutin, in Paris – probably the same version mentioned by Rosenberg in 1979 (p. 9). Rosenberg refers to three versions produced in the 18th century, apart from two copies, one offered at the Marius Palme sale of November 22, 1923, and the other at the Ashmolean Museum of Oxford. As noted by Rosenberg (1979, p. 240) and Camesasca (1987, p. 136), both works – one at Masp and the other at the Louvre – significantly contributed to the rediscovery of Chardin at the end of the 19th century. In 1867 both portraits were shown at a small exhibition in Versailles and were enthusiastically received by the critics. Thirty years later, as mentioned by Camesasca, these portraits were classified by André Michel as petits chefs-d’oeuvre during the exhibit of Portraits de femmes et d’enfants, held in Paris, and in 1907 they became famous during the acclaimed exhibit sponsored by Galerie Georges Petit. At that time, the Louvre acquired one of the versions, and a sharp controversy ensued not only because the museum had selected the first version, notwithstanding its inexact date (probably 1738), but also because this version was considered by several experts to be of lesser excellence. Camesasca reported in detail the evolution of this controversy, which at times tended to question the quality of the Masp version. Chardin’s memorable 1979-1980 exhibition at the Grand Palais still reflected the effects of the 1907 controversy, although the full signature on the Masp version had been acknowledged without restriction by Pierre Rosenberg. However, as late as 1985, Conisbee (p. 155) only considered this work to be “probably autographed”. Apart from the matter of its autograph, which is obviously unquestionable, is the issue regarding the meaning of this Masp portrait, which simultaneously depicts a still-life motif and a genre scene. Should the image of this boy, amusing himself with a whipping top and oblivious of his chores, be considered as having a less apparent symbolic or allegoric meaning? Conisbee (1985, pp. 158-159) discussed a few hypotheses. The portrait could have been inspired by a 1610 Spanish book of symbols, in which the image of a whipping top, accompanied by the caption “only at the stroke of a whip”, symbolizes human laziness, which is only defeated by the stroke of a whip. The idea reappears in a 1614 Dutch book of symbols in which the whipping top symbolism, transferred to a religious context, is formulated as follows: “The less you are whipped, the lazier you become for God’s service.” This English scholar, however, considers these associations far-fetched, not only because they are vague and imprecise, but especially because “one should be careful when attributing symbolic meanings to Chardin’s paintings”. On the other hand, if there is any symbolism in Chardin’s work, it should be sought in the limpid Alexandrine verses inscribed in Lépicié’s engraving: Dans les mains du Caprice auquel il s’abandonne, L’Homme est un vrai Tôton qui tourne incessament; Et souvent son destin dépend du mouvement, Qu’en le faisant tourner la fortune lui donne. Conisbee relates the iconography in question to the Soap Bubble theme, which recurred in 18th-century French paintings. Another possible association, which in our opinion is more plausible, would be that with the two versions of The House of Cards, painted by Chardin in 1737, now at the National Galleries of London and Washington. Nevertheless, more than suggesting any moral connotations in a subtler vanitas style, the scene under consideration seems to indicate a lenient and light-hearted admonishment to the child who, mesmerized by the whipping top, neglects his literary and artistic studies, which are forgotten inside the drawer and on one of the corners of the table. The iconography of the Masp portrait would then be a humorous and ironic variant on the theme of children’s education, which became very popular in the 18th century, and recurred in Chardin’s work.

— Unknown authorship, 1998

Source: Luiz Marques (org.), Catalogue of the Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, São Paulo: MASP, 1998. (new edition, 2008).



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