Dead duck hanged - Chardin

Booklet from the 1765 Salon :

"By Mr. Chardin, Councillor and Treasurer of the Academy.
45. [...]
48. Three Tableaux, under the same numero, including an oval, representing Refreshments, Fruits & Animals.
These Tableaux are 4 feet 6 inches wide, by 3 feet 6 inches high ; the oval one is 5 feet high. "

Description of Diderot:

" 48. Third painting of refreshments, to be placed between the first two.
If it is true that a connoisseur cannot dispense with at least one Chardin, let him seize this one. The artist is beginning to age. He has sometimes done as well; never better. Suspend a river bird by the leg. On a sideboard below, suppose whole and broken cookies, a jar corked and filled with olives, a painted and covered China bowl, a lemon, a napkin unfolded and carelessly thrown away, a pâté on a wooden log, with a glass half-full of wine. This is where we see that there are few ungrateful objects in nature, and that the point is to return them. The cookies are yellow, the jar is green, the napkin white, the wine red, and this yellow, this green, this white, this red, set in opposition, recreate the eye with the most perfect harmony. And don't think that this harmony is the result of a weak, soft, polished manner. Not at all; it's the most vigorous touch everywhere. It's true that these objects don't change before the artist's eyes. As he has seen them one day, so he finds them the next. Not so with animated nature. Constancy is the attribute only of stone." " (Diderot, Salon de 1765, Bouquins, p. 348.)