Encyclopedia, Difference between revisions of "Francois Boucher" - New World
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François Boucher was born in [[Paris]] to a family of little means. His father, [[Nicholas Boucher]], was a painter specialising in embroidery designs. These humble beginnings did not allow Boucher to receive any formal education as a young man. Instead, he received what knowledge he had from working under his father, helping with the family business. | François Boucher was born in [[Paris]] to a family of little means. His father, [[Nicholas Boucher]], was a painter specialising in embroidery designs. These humble beginnings did not allow Boucher to receive any formal education as a young man. Instead, he received what knowledge he had from working under his father, helping with the family business. | ||
| − | When Boucher turned 17, he became an apprentice to [[François le Moyne]] for a period of three months. After that time,t he money ran out, and Boucher was forced to employment. He went to work for[[Jean-François Cars]], who was an engraver. | + | When Boucher turned 17, he became an apprentice to [[François le Moyne|François Lemoyne]] for a period of three months. After that time,t he money ran out, and Boucher was forced to employment. He went to work for[[Jean-François Cars]], who was an engraver. It was under Cars that Boucher learned and perfected his skills as an engraver. Within three years, at the young age of twenty, Boucher distinguished himself as a serious artist. He won the elite Grand [[Prix de Rome]]. The Prix de Rome was a scholarship for art students at the time. The various artists were required to prove their talents by completing a rigorous elimination process. The grand prize winner would receive a stay at the Mancini Palace in Rome, all expenses paid by the King of France. The contest was organized by the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. Although Boucher was announced the winner of the prize, he declined going to [[Italy]] to study until four years later because he received a commission from the honored painter [[Jean-Antoine Watteau]]. |
| + | Watteau commissioned Boucher to serve as engraver of several of Watteau's paintings. This experience taught Boucher several lessons. First, he gained exposure to the intricate delicacies of Watteaus famed sytle. He also began forming a reputation around Paris as an artist trusted by Watteau, thus credibility and respect ensued. Finally, the commission provided Boucher with the funds he needed to be able to live and study in Italy. | ||
| − | + | Boucher left for Italy in 1727 and stayed there for four years. | |
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| + | On his return from studying in Italy in 1731, he was admitted to the [[Académie de peinture et de sculpture|Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture]] as a historical painter, and became a faculty member in 1734. | ||
Revision as of 23:07, 25 June 2007
- For other uses, see Boucher (disambiguation)
François Boucher (September 29 1703 – May 30 1770) had an unparalleled career as a was a French painter. His versatility in the popular style of Rococo, led to great works that were consitently classical in subject and skill. His work was characterized by several themes and subjects, including pastoral occupations, such as coquettish milkmaids, allegorical paintings featuring voluptuous beauties, and classical themes including cupids and countryside. His work is a true reflection of eighteenth century France at its pinnacle.
Boucher also completed several commissions for his patroness, the illustrious Madame de Pompadour. His amazing talent with the paint brush gave the world works of art that are perfect in every aspect, including history, mythology, portraiture, landscape, still life, and ordinary life events.
Early Life and Education
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François Boucher was born in Paris to a family of little means. His father, Nicholas Boucher, was a painter specialising in embroidery designs. These humble beginnings did not allow Boucher to receive any formal education as a young man. Instead, he received what knowledge he had from working under his father, helping with the family business.
When Boucher turned 17, he became an apprentice to François Lemoyne for a period of three months. After that time,t he money ran out, and Boucher was forced to employment. He went to work forJean-François Cars, who was an engraver. It was under Cars that Boucher learned and perfected his skills as an engraver. Within three years, at the young age of twenty, Boucher distinguished himself as a serious artist. He won the elite Grand Prix de Rome. The Prix de Rome was a scholarship for art students at the time. The various artists were required to prove their talents by completing a rigorous elimination process. The grand prize winner would receive a stay at the Mancini Palace in Rome, all expenses paid by the King of France. The contest was organized by the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. Although Boucher was announced the winner of the prize, he declined going to Italy to study until four years later because he received a commission from the honored painter Jean-Antoine Watteau.
Watteau commissioned Boucher to serve as engraver of several of Watteau's paintings. This experience taught Boucher several lessons. First, he gained exposure to the intricate delicacies of Watteaus famed sytle. He also began forming a reputation around Paris as an artist trusted by Watteau, thus credibility and respect ensued. Finally, the commission provided Boucher with the funds he needed to be able to live and study in Italy.
Boucher left for Italy in 1727 and stayed there for four years.
On his return from studying in Italy in 1731, he was admitted to the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture as a historical painter, and became a faculty member in 1734.
He had been trained as an engraver, and the skills of a draftsman which he imbued in the studio of Jean-Francois Cars stood him in good stead throughout his career; his delightful drawings are one of the most sought after aspects of his oeuvre. As a student of Francois Le Moyne he mastered the art of composition - although in later years he was to deny his debt to Le Moyne - while the four years he spent in Italy, from 1727-1731, gave him the education in the works of the masters, in the classics and in history, that his modest upbringing had denied him.
Artistic Career
His career accelerated from this point, as he advanced from professor to Rector of the Academy, becoming head of the Royal Gobelin factory in 1755 and finally Premier Peintre du Roi (First Painter of the King) in 1765.
Reflecting inspiration gained from the artists Watteau and Rubens, Boucher's early work celebrates the idyllic and tranquil, portraying nature and landscape with great élan. However, his art typically forgoes traditional rural innocence to portray scenes with a definitive style of eroticism, and his mythological scenes are passionate and amorous rather than traditionally epic. Marquise de Pompadour (mistress of King Louis XV), whose name became synonymous with Rococo art, was a great fan of Boucher's, and it is particularly in his portraits of her that this style is clearly exemplified.
Paintings such as The Breakfast of 1739, a family scene, also show Boucher as a master of the genre scene, as he regularly used his own wife and family as models. These intimate family scenes are, however, in contrast to the 'licentious' style, as seen in his Odalisque portraits. The dark-haired version of the Odalisque portraits prompted claims by Diderot that Boucher was "prostituting his own wife," and the Blonde Odalisque was a portrait that illustrated the extra-marital relationships of the King. Boucher gained lasting notoriety through such private commissions for wealthy collectors and, after the ever-moral Diderot expressed his disapproval, his reputation came under increasing critical attack during the last of his creative years.
Along with his painting, Boucher also designed theatre costumes and sets, and the ardent intrigues of the comic operas of Favart (1710-1792) closely parallel his own style of painting. Tapestry design was also an interest and major activity of his, together with his design activities for the opera and the royal palaces of Versailles, Fontainebleau and Choisy. His designs for all of the aforementioned augmented his earlier reputation, resulting in many engravings from his work and even reproduction of his themes onto porcelain and biscuit-ware at the Vincennes and Sèvres factories.
Francois Boucher died on May 30 1770 in Paris, France. His name, along with that of his patron Madame de Pompadour, had become synonymous with the French Rococo style, leading the Goncourt brothers to write: "Boucher is one of those men who represent the taste of a century, who express, personify and embody it."
Works include
- Rinaldo and Armida (Louvre Museum)
- The Rest on the Flight to Egypt
- The Leda and the Swan
- La Toilette
- Diana Leaving her Bath
- The Companions of Diana
- Diana Returns from the Hunt
- Bachantes
- Interupted Sleep
- Portrait of Marie-Louise O'Murphy (Alte Pinakothek)
- Autumn
- Putti with Birds (L'Amour Oiseleur), ca. 1731-33 Honolulu Academy of Arts
- The Visit of Venus to Vulcan
- Christ and John the Baptist as Children
- Pastorale
- Naiads and Triton
- Triumph of Venus
- Venus Consoling Love
See also
- History of painting
- Western painting
Credits
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