# Madame Bergeret **François Boucher** (French, 1703–1770) possibly 1766 oil on canvas overall: 143.5 x 105.4 cm (56 1/2 x 41 1/2 in.) framed: 172.4 x 134.3 cm (67 7/8 x 52 7/8 in.) Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1946.7.3. [The museum's record](https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.32681.html). ## About this work Madame Bergeret stands in a garden in a gown of shimmering silver-white silk with blue bows, a straw hat trimmed with blue ribbon in one hand and a pink rose in the other, resting on an urn of flowers. Roses lie scattered on a bench and on the ground beside her. Boucher, best known for mythologies and pastorals, painted relatively few portraits, and here he gives his sitter the same garden setting and flower-strewn artifice as his shepherdesses. The sheen of the silk, glinting white in the light and grey in shadow, shows off his virtuosity. _Written by Ochre Editions._ François Boucher painted this (possibly 1766), aged 63. It is now at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. ### What you’re looking at A young woman with light skin stands in a garden, wearing a voluminous, full-length, silvery, shimmering gown in this vertical portrait painting. Her body faces us, as she looks into the distance to our left. She has rosy cheeks, gray-green eyes under gently arched, light brown brows, and her coral-pink, thin, closed lips curve in a slight smile. Her ash-brown hair is pulled back and adorned with tiny shell-pink and azure-blue flowers along the left side top of head, to our right. A pleated lace ruffle encircles her smooth neck. Her gown is parchment white where the light glints off the stiff fabric and is silvery gray in the shadows, creating a silk-like sheen. The dress is cut low across the chest, fits tightly around her narrow waist, and has puffy sleeves tied at the elbows with topaz-blue bows. Another blue bow is tied at her chest, and the ends wrap around her back along her waist. A corsage at her left shoulder, to our right, is a profusion of white flowers around a pale pink rose. In her other hand, to our left, she holds a straw hat with a shallow crown and a wide brim, trimmed with sky-blue ribbon. The arm holding the hat is nearly engulfed in the deep folds of her full skirt. She holds a pink rose in her other hand, which rests on the lip of a shiny, copper-colored urn filled with pink flowers and delicate green leaves. On that wrist she wears a bracelet with four strands of white pearls holding a cameo. She stands on a pale, dirt ground. A teal-blue bench in the lower left corner of the painting is tucked into sage-green shrubbery. Sprigs of pink roses are strewn across the seat and on the ground. The woman is framed to either side with olive and celery-green trees and vegetation, which blend into the hazy distance beyond her head. _Description from the National Gallery of Art._ ### How it was made - **Oil paint.** Pigment ground in a drying oil, usually linseed. It dries slowly, so painters could blend on the canvas, build up thin translucent glazes, and rework a picture over weeks. Canvas replaced wooden panels in the 1500s because it is lighter and can be rolled. ### [François Boucher](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/francois-boucher) French, 1703–1770; born in Paris; died in Paris Boucher trained with François Lemoyne, won the Prix de Rome and spent several years in Italy before rising to become First Painter to Louis XV. Madame de Pompadour was his most important patron. He worked at every scale, from mythological canvases full of rosy nudes and cupids to designs for the Beauvais and Gobelins tapestry factories, porcelain and the opera. His light, decorative manner came to define the French Rococo. _Written by Ochre Editions._ ## Facts - Type: Painting - The artist was 63 - Real size: about 56 × 41 in (144 × 105 cm). The original is larger than our largest print, 20 × 30 in, so every print is a reduction. - Century: 18th century - Subjects: female, Bergeret, Madame Marguerite-Josephe - Colour: brown - Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose. ## Get it - Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/1477.jpg?dl=1 - Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/1477/1920.jpg - Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68; 20 × 30 in $86 - Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164; 20 × 30 in $208 - Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98; 18 × 24 in $118 - Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3; 20 × 30 in $5 Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/madame-bergeret-nga-32681).