Chardin’s masterpiece, The Melon started (1760), has just been sold for a record amount of 26.7 million euros. This is the highest sum ever paid in the world for an 18th century French painting. But also the best sale ever made in France on an old painting. And this, for a cut fruit.
26.7 million euros. This is the colossal auction at which the painting was awarded The Melon started by Chardin, on June 12, at Christie’s in Paris. We are far from the three-figure sums of the great Monet, Basquiat, Van Gogh, Munch, or da Vinci, but it is nevertheless the most beautiful sum ever seen in France for an old painting. It is all the more surprising that this record amount was spent on a still life, a somewhat denigrated and unloved genre. But this is not just any still life.
Jean-Siméon Chardin, undisputed master of still life
After the Basket of wild strawberries, a magnificent still life all in balance and delicacy by the same artist, sold for 24.4 million euros in 2022 and now bought by the Louvre museum, another work by Jean-Siméon Chardin beats the record for the most expensive sold in France. This time it is not strawberries, but a melon, a quarter of which has been cut and balanced on the fruit, next to some peaches, pears and plums, arranged near a pitcher and a bottle. A simple scene that one could have encountered in many 18th century kitchens. The eminent still life specialist chose to highlight it with a round frame, which echoes the roundness of the melon. The most expensive fruit in France.
“The Melon started is a pure moment of pictorial poetrya perfect moment where all the magic of Chardin is expressed: the balance of composition, light, colors, shapes“, commented Pierre Étienne, international director of the Old Paintings department at Christie’s, in a press release. The work, dated and signed by 1760is one of the latest paintings painted by the French artist (1699-1779), then at the top of his art. It was estimated between 8 and 12 million euros, but buyers went well beyond this market price. “Today old paintings are very sought after, the market for French 18th century paintings is very buoyant”, explained on France Cultureat the start of the year, the specialist Éric Turquin, then in charge of sales Basket of wild strawberrieswhich had also been underestimated at between 10 and 15 million euros.
A work that goes into the hands of a rich European collector
I have to say that The Melon started was presented by the painter at the Salon de l’Académie de Peintures et de Sculptures in 1761 alongside its counterpart, The jar of apricots, now kept at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto… and the famous Basket of Strawberries. The latter would also have gone across the Atlantic, before the Louvre intervened and asked the French to help finance the work, which was too expensive for its budget.
This time it’s a mysterious European buyer who acquired The Melon startedwhich had previously belonged to a goldsmith of Louis XV, then to the French collector of the 19th century François Marcille, before being sold to the Rothschild family, according to Knowledge of the Arts. The Louvre was unable to intervene this time. However, it is not known whether it will be exhibited in a gallery or museum.
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