- BOUCHER, Francois
1703-70
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Decorator
- Francois Boucher was the most typical Rococo decorator, and the friend and Mme de Pompadour. One of his best portraits is of her (1758: London, V&A - others are in the Wallace Collection, and Edinburgh NG). He began as an engraver of Watteau, won the Prix de Rome in 1723, but did not go to Italy until 1727: there he admired little but Tiepolo, the greatest decorator of the age. He returned to France in 1731, became an Academician in 1734, and Director in 1765. He made many tapestry designs and painted charmingly indelicate mythological scenes, ultimately inspired by Veronese, Rubens and Watteau. He was censured for these by Diderot on moral grounds. Reynolds, who visited his studio, was scandalized by his working without a model: 'He said, when he was young, studying his art, he found it necessary to use models; but he had left them off for many years.'
He painted some landscapes which are charming, but characteristically untrue to nature.
The best collection of his works is in London (Wallace Coll.) - especially the large tapestry designs of the Rising and Setting of the Sun (1753). There are others in Cambridge (Fitzwm), Detroit, London (NG, Kenwood), Manchester, New York, Paris (Louvre) and also in many French provincial museums, Waddesdon Bucks (NT) and Washington.
Francois Boucher canvas prints @ ebay.com (direct link to canvas prints) - just checked and a bigger selection than I have seen anywhere else
- Source: The Penguin Dictionary of Art and Artists (Penguin Reference Books)
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