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François Boucher

François Boucher (French, 1703–1770). Every work of theirs in the collection, in today's hang.

6 works · hang 748 ·

The rooms are imagined; every work on their walls is real.

Walk this roomRehang this room

Section 1, north wall

  1. A work made of oil on canvas.
    Are They Thinking about the Grape? (Pensent-ils au raisin?)François Boucher, 1747Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  2. Cupids in Conspiracy, by François Boucher, 1740s
    Cupids in ConspiracyFrançois Boucher, 1740sCourtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art
  3. A young woman draws on an oval surface with white chalk while three winged, baby-like putti gather nearby, all on a bank of pale pink clouds in this horizontal painting. The woman and putti have pale, rosy skin, flushed cheeks, and hazel-brown eyes. To our left, the woman reclines with her upper body propped up on her far elbow, which rests on a steel-blue cushion as her legs stretch out to our right. Her light brown hair is braided and wrapped across the top of her head. She wears a loose, seafoam-green robe over a billowing ivory-white garment that has slipped off the shoulder closer to us. A round paint palette with brushes sticking out of its thumb hole and a roll of blue and white paper sit in the lower left corner, behind the woman. The woman and the objects are on a red cloth. In front of the woman is a rounded surface, perhaps a canvas, on which she draws. She holds up a gold-colored stylus with her right hand, closer to us, with a pointed piece of white chalk in one end and black chalk in the other. The canvas is taller than her head, so the child-like putto she draws on it is life-sized. The three nude putti on the far side of the canvas have copper or golden-blond, curly hair, flushed, rounded cheeks, short wings in white or peacock blue, pudgy torsos, and dimpled limbs. One putto, presumably the one the woman draws, sits back on the bank of clouds with a carnation-pink sash across his chest. He pulls his chin back and looks at her from under his eyebrows. He holds a gold-colored torch with a pink flame in one hand, and the other hand rests near a cylindrical quiver of arrows. Another putto peeks around the side of the canvas, and the third stands and props the canvas up. That third putto holds up a wreath of laurel leaves up over the canvas, above the woman’s drawing hand. The bank of clouds is parchment-brown with muted pink and blue highlights against a vivid blue sky. The artist signed and dated the lower right, “F Boucher – 1765.”
    Allegory of PaintingFrançois Boucher, 1765Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington

Section 1, south wall

  1. 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.
    Madame BergeretFrançois Boucher, possibly 1766Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  2. A woman wearing flowing, pastel-colored robes and two, winged, child-like putti gather on a bank of clouds among musical instruments and sheet music in this horizontal painting. The people all have pale, pink-tinged skin. The woman sits to our right of center, facing our left in profile. She has straight nose, a rounded chin, and her small, pink lips are closed. Her ash-blond hair is pulled back under a yellow band. A voluminous white robe falls away over her left shoulder, to our right, to reveal a firm breast and small pink nipple. Sky-blue drapery wraps over her far arm, and deep rose-pink cloth falls across her lap and onto the clouds around her. Her legs extend to our left, her toes pointed. She leans back on her left elbow, closer to us, and points with that index finger to a lyre she props against her knee with her other hand. One chubby, nude putto reaches forward to strum the strings. The other putto hovers above, holding a ring of laurel leaves up in one hand and a flute in the other. Both putti have chubby limbs and torsos, blond curls lifted as if in a breeze, and short, ice-blue wings. Both look at the woman. In the lower left corner, a helmet with a topaz-blue feather and the gold hilt of a sword sit near the woman’s feet. Beneath the woman’s lower leg, at the bottom center of the painting, is a gold horn encircled by another wreath of laurel leaves. Two white doves with wings spread support an open book of sheet music and two pink roses tucked under the woman’s bent elbow. Fog-gray clouds billow up both sides of the scene against a pale blue sky. The clouds on which the trio gathers are parchment brown shaded with mauve pink. The outer corners of the image are white, indicating that the corners of the canvas were rounded. The artist signed and dated the painting in the lower right corner, “F Boucher 1764.”
    Allegory of MusicFrançois Boucher, 1764Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  3. The Toilette of Venus, by François Boucher, 1751
    The Toilette of VenusFrançois Boucher, 1751Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art