via Saatchi Gallery
The French artist Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin died today 6 December in 1779 at the age of 80. One of the greatest still life painters in the history of art, Chardin painted simple, mundane things and domestic interiors with a freshness and attention to light and composition much admired at the time and subsequently: Manet, Cezanne, Matisse and, later, Lucien Freud all looked to Chardin for inspiration.