François Boucher (1703-1770) (after)
Madame
Jourdan [also Jourdain] (engraver)
Pensent
Ils à Ce Mouton [They Think of This Sheep] Alibert
Md. D'Estampes, Rue Froidmanteau, No. 16, Paris: Late 18th Century (restruck
Late 19th Century)
Color
printed engraving
22.25
x 17.25 inches, overall
18
x 13 inches, plate mark
$375
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A young rural couple romance each other on a lazy summer day in a sunlit spot beneath the trees in this sweet scene. A dog sits nearby, perhaps symbolizing devotion, and a quaint cottage can be viewed in the distance. Boucher popularized the sub-genre of the pastoral painting featuring romances between shepherds and shepherdesses.
François Boucher was a prolific French painter, draftsman and etcher, considered among the leading artists of the 18th century. He seems to have been one of the first artists to exploit the market for engravings after paintings, which spread his artistic influence throughout Europe at a time when Paris was the style setter in the fine and decorative arts. Boucher painted history and mythological subjects, and reinvented the genre of the pastoral with sentimental pictures of amorous shepherds and shepherdesses that were produced in every medium, including porcelain. Boucher's airy painterly style dominated French painting until the emergence of neoclassicism, which in part was a reaction against it. His paintings are in the world's major museums from The Hermitage, to the Louvre, to the Frick and Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Condition: Generally very good with the usual light overall toning and edge wear. Very pale faint mat burn.
Reference:
"François Boucher." The Grove Dictionary of Art. New York: Macmillan. 2000. Artnet.com. http://www.artnet.com/library/01/0104/T010423.asp (15 April 2004).