JEAN SIMÉON CHARDIN (PARIS 1699-1779) – Le Melon entamé (The cut melon)
Le Melon entamé (1760) by Jean Siméon Chardin made €26,730,000 over a top estimate of €12 million at Christie’s in Paris today to become the most expensive Old Master painting sold in France, the most expensive 18th century French old master in the world and the most expensive work sold in France in 2024. From the Marcille and Rothschild collections it was acquired by a European collector. One of the signal masterpieces of Chardin’s late career, The Cut Melon has for almost two centuries belonged to just two families, the Marcille and the Rothschild dynasties, each of which gathered through succeeding generations the greatest and most celebrated collections of Chardin’s paintings ever assembled.