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Still Life Is Not Still: Chardin’s Lesson in Storytelling - the Atelier Newsletter
Published about 2 months ago • 3 min read
Every artist who has considered painting a still life inevitably asks: How to avoid making it boring?
It’s not enough to just place some objects on a table and paint them as they are. A truly great still life goes beyond objects—it tells a story. It becomes a stage where shapes, textures, and light create meaning. Chardin was a master of this. In his painting Still Life with Attributes of the Arts (1766), he shows us how inanimate objects can carry weight, presence, and even narrative.
Still Life Is Not Still: Chardin’s Lesson in Storytelling
Still Life with Attributes of the Arts (1766) by Jean-Baptiste Siméon Chardin
The Power of the Composition
When you look at Chardin’s still life, notice first the architecture of the painting. Nothing is random. Each object—the books, palette, plaster cast, brushes—sits with purpose.
It’s artificial, sure ! But it’s the best kind of artifice. The kind you’d have when watching a play : imagine that your still life setup is a little scene : everything is placed carefully, all the details are thought out so that every part of the play shows its best qualities.
Chardin is not only thinking about objects individually; he’s thinking in shapes, rhythms, and masses.
The table anchors the composition solidly, bringing it to our eyes.
The vertical of the red portfolio and books balances the horizontal whiteness of the paper and the table. If it was just for this, it would be a flat grid. However, note how nothing feels centered, objects are breaking symmetry and taking places in a very elegantly unbalanced manner.
The diagonal tilt of the plaster figure breaks the apparent flatness of the composition and brings some kind of movement and variety. That’s when you see this that you realize that nothing is flat : every single object has a slight tilt that follows the diagonal angle of the statue. Even the shadows are shaped to follow this direction.
To break into the visual space of the viewer, some objects are in strong foreshortening, like the brushes and rolls.
Finally the negative spaces (the air around the objects) are carefully considered. There’s just enough space above the composition to give it breathing room.
This is the painter’s first job in still life: to compose with intention. You’re not painting things, you’re painting relationships.
Light is the Main Subject
If composition is the skeleton, then light is the lifeblood. Chardin doesn’t just illuminate objects; he sculpts them with light.
Notice how light pours across the plaster figure, caresses the red case in the background, and glints on the metallic surfaces.
Remember the diagonal movement we talked about earlier? Well, here it is : the movement is the light.
Light is like a narrator, it tells us where to look, it describes textures (stone, wood, metal, paper), and it sets the mood of the story.
Notice how the statue of Mercury glows against the darker background, it becomes the “hero” of the painting, while the surrounding objects play supporting roles. The gleam on the bronze jug, the soft reflection on the red book, the velvet darkness of the shadows: all of these create rhythm and contrast.
This is the key: in still life, light itself is the subject. The objects are simply instruments to reveal how light behaves. When you think this way, your still life will stop looking flat and start to breathe.
Telling Stories with Inanimate Objects
Finally, what makes Chardin’s painting unforgettable is the story. Look at the objects: palettes, brushes, a sculpture, rolls of paper, books, medals. These aren’t random, they are the “attributes of the arts.” The painting becomes a tribute to creativity itself.
Chardin’s still life isn’t about apples on a table. It’s about the world of the arts. A plaster cast recalls the study of sculpture, palettes and brushes evoke painting, scrolls suggest architecture or design, and books point to learning.
Together, these objects tell us about the intellectual and artistic pursuits of his time. They create a portrait ; not of a person, but of a whole discipline, a way of life.
That’s the true secret of still life: objects are never neutral. They carry meaning. A wine glass can be about celebration, or about fragility. A broken object can symbolize mortality. A simple piece of fabric can add drama or suggest intimacy.
This is what separates a decorative still life from a meaningful one: storytelling. When you choose your objects, ask yourself:
What do they say when placed together?
Do they create contrast?
Do they suggest a narrative?
Chardin shows us that still life is not about copying reality: it’s about poetry through objects.
Conclusion
Chardin shows us that a still life is never really still. It’s a stage where objects play their roles, light is the director, and composition is the script.
So, the next time you set up a still life, remember: you’re not just painting objects—you’re telling a story.
Free Art Newsletter filled with the best oil painting and drawing tips, directly from the Atelier tradition. Timeless techniques to enjoy weekly to grow and inspire.
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