Boy with a Spinning-Top explained

Boy with a Spinning-Top
Museum:Louvre
Height Metric:67
Width Metric:76
Year:1738
Artist:Jean Siméon Chardin

Boy with a Spinning-Top or Child with a Teetotum is a 1738 oil-on-canvas painting by the French artist Jean Siméon Chardin, now in the Louvre in Paris, which acquired it in 1907.[1]

It is based on a 1735 work now in the São Paulo Museum of Art and shows Auguste-Gabriel, son of the jeweller Charles Godefroy, contemplating a teetotum or spinning top.[2] The painting is in line with Age of Enlightenment ideas on childhood and play, especially those of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. On the table in the background are an inkwell, a pen and books, whilst a drawer in the table is open to show a porte-crayon.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Site officiel du musée du Louvre. cartelfr.louvre.fr. 2018-07-12.
  2. Rosenberg, P., Bruyant, F., Galeries nationales du Grand Palais (France), Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf, Städtische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Royal Academy of Arts (Great Britain) & Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York N.Y.). (1999). Chardin. Royal Academy of Arts: Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 224. .