The Art of Love Making by Two Woman Video

The Dear Alphabetic character— also referred to every bit The Ii Confidantes, The Messenger, The Lovers' Secret Mail, and, less convincingly, The Beloved Sheep — typifies the pastoral idiom François Boucher had already made his own by the late 1740s. In a lush and verdant garden or wooded countryside, two young women recline at the base of a rock pillar surmounted by a carved lion. [1] [i]
The stone lion — which appears in other pastorals by Boucher, such every bit The Enjoyable Lesson (Alexandre Ananoff with Daniel Wildenstein, François Boucher [Lausanne and Paris, 1976], ii: no. 311), exhibited at the Salons of 1748 and 1750 — is based on the pair of antique sculptures at the base of the Capitoline Steps in Rome; encounter Ursula Hoff, European Paintings before 1800 in the National Gallery of Victoria, 4th ed. (Melbourne, 1995), 22. 1 ties an envelope around the neck of a pigeon with a blueish ribbon while looking with admiration at her companion. The sheep that lounge about and the dog continuing sentry tell us that these are shepherdesses, merely like many such characters of Boucher'south they pay little attention to their responsibilities, preferring to idle the day away gathering flowers in a straw basket and sending missives via carrier pigeon. Boucher never concerned himself with the verities of country life, only employed the shepherdess type equally an idealized and voluptuous protagonist for his decorative pictures. In this example he lavished his brush on the women's satin dresses, their powdery peel, and the coincidental perfection of their pilus. Despite their affectations, they are wholly at ease in their accommodating setting.

The Beloved Letter originally formed a pair with The Interrupted Slumber, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York [fig. ane] [fig. 1] François Boucher, The Interrupted Sleep, 1750, oil on canvass, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Jules Bache Collection, 1949 (49.7.46). www.metmuseum.org , another pastoral subject field that matches the Washington painting in size, composition, and dotty theme. [2] [two]
Alexandre Ananoff with Daniel Wildenstein, François Boucher (Lausanne and Paris, 1976), 2: no. 363. The pendants remained together until they were dispersed at the sale of the marquis de Ménars and Marigny'south drove in 1782. In The Interrupted Sleep a young shepherdess has dozed off and is about to be awakened by a young boyfriend, who sneaks upwardly from backside and tickles her face with a bit of straw. [iii] [3]
Alexandre Ananoff, L'oeuvre dessiné de François Boucher 1732 – 1806 (Paris, 1966), no. 261, fig. 48, publishes a drawing past Boucher formerly in the drove of Princess Mathilde, showing a similar subject, just indoors. Once again the setting is rich and fertile, enlivened past sheep and a dog; views into the distance balance the compositions. The palette in The Interrupted Sleep is somewhat more than somber — i could say more rustic — than that of The Dear Letter, particularly in the vesture, tending to stake ochers and brownish reds in the quondam and blue purples and pale pinks in the latter. The creative person'south exquisite brushwork unites the pair, peculiarly the delicate glazes that enrich the treatment of the draperies or clear the petals of the flowers. In each painting Boucher uses a subtle orchestration of the lights and darks to heighten the visual experience, resulting in such lovely passages every bit the shadow that falls across the face of the adult female in The Interrupted Sleep or the soft illumination of the woman's ankles and toes in The Love Letter.

The 2 paintings, both signed and dated 1750, were not original compositions but were adapted by Boucher from a awe-inspiring tapestry cartoon that he had painted in 1748, probably with the help of studio assistants. [iv] [iv]
The painting survives only in mutilated condition. The main sections are in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, and the section corresponding to The Love Letter is in a private drove; see Alexandre Ananoff with Daniel Wildenstein, François Boucher (Lausanne and Paris, 1976), 2: nos. 321, 324. For a full discussion of these paintings, see Jean-Luc Bordeaux, "The Epitome of the Pastoral Genre in Boucher's Oeuvre: The Fountain of Love and The Bird Catcher from The Noble Pastoral," in J. Paul Getty Museum Journal 3 (1976): 87, repro. The tapestry, called The Fountain of Love, was commencement woven in 1755 at Beauvais every bit part of the series Le Noble Pastorale [fig. 2] [fig. 2] François Boucher, The Fountain of Love, 1755, tapestry, Courtesy of the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California. © Courtesy of the Huntington Art Collections, San Marino, California . [5] [5]
Encounter Maurice Block, François Boucher and the Beauvais Tapestries (Boston and New York, 1933), fig. 8. One of Boucher's grandest designs, information technology weaves together a series of intimate tête-à-têtes played out in a luxuriant landscape. The figures from The Love Alphabetic character and The Interrupted Sleep are visible, in reverse, on the right side of the limerick, at the foot of a magnificent fountain topped by playful cupids. The picturesque mill at Charenton, which Boucher painted on numerous occasions, is prominent in the left groundwork.

Although they were taken from an earlier project, The Dear Letter of the alphabet and its pendant are wholly autograph. They were produced for no less prestigious a customer than Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, marquise de Pompadour (1721 – 1764), Louis Xv's maîtresse en titre, undoubtedly the reason Boucher took special intendance in painting them. The royal provenance is confirmed by the inscription on Jean Ouvrier'southward (1725 – 1754) engraving of 1761 after The Love Letter, The 2 Confidentes [fig. 3] [fig. iii] Jean Ouvrir after François Boucher, The Ii Confidantes (Les Deux Confidentes), 1761, engraving and carving, Musée du Louvre, Paris, France. © RMN-Grand Palais / Fine art Resources, NY. Photograph: Thierry Le Mage . [half-dozen] [6]
"Tiré du Cabinet de Madame la Marquise de Pompadour"; come across Pierrette Jean-Richard, L'oeuvre gravée de François Boucher dans la drove Edmond de Rothschild (Paris, 1978), 346, nos. 1435 – 1437, repro. The engraving later the Metropolitan picture, by Nicolas Dauphin de Beauvais, also noted that it was "Tiré du Cabinet de Madame la Marquise de Pompadour" (Pierrette Jean-Richard, L'oeuvre gravée de François Boucher dans la drove Edmond de Rothschild [Paris, 1978], 279 – 280, nos. 281 – 284, repro.; Madame de Pompadour et les arts [Paris, 2002], 244 – 245, nos. 95 – 96). The Love Letter was too reproduced in an etching by Anne Charbonnier (Pierrette Jean-Richard, 50'oeuvre gravée de François Boucher dans la collection Edmond de Rothschild [Paris, 1978], no. 463, repro.). When the two paintings were exhibited at the Salon of 1753, they were described as overdoors for Pompadour's residence at Bellevue outside Paris. [vii] [7]
No. 181 in the Salon livret: "Deux pastorales dessus de Porte, du Château de Belle-Vûe, sous le même no" (Two pastorals, overdoors from the Château de Bellevue, under the aforementioned number). They are no dubiousness identical to the works described in situ by Antoine Nicolas Dezallier d'Argenville (1723 – 1796) in his Voyage pittoresque des environs de Paris, published in 1755: "The picayune room that follows the sleeping accommodation of Her Majesty is entirely paneled. The moldings are carved with garlands of flowers, which have been naturalistically painted; and in the middle of the panels are cartouches where we encounter various babyhood activities. At that place are two pastorals, by M. Boucher, over the doors." [8] [8]
"Le petit cabinet qui suit la chambre à coucher de Sa Majesté, est entièrement boisé. Les moulures de ses lambris sont relevées par des guirlandes de fleurs peintes au naturel; et dans les milieux des panneaux, des cartouches font voir divers exercises de fifty'âge tendre. Sur les portes il y a deux pastorales, de M. Boucher." Antoine-Nicolas Dézallier d'Argenville, Voyages pittoresque des surround de Paris ou description des maisons royales (Paris, 1755), 29.

Although d'Argenville's business relationship of the paintings is vague (even if he took care to relate the details of the room's decoration), nosotros can be confident that they are the canvases now in Washington and New York based on descriptions made when they were exhibited in Paris and on measurements recorded later. [9] [9]
For case, Père Laugier'due south review of the Salon describes the National Gallery painting in this mode: "Dans l'autre, une Bergère reçoit de sa Campagne un Cigne qui porte une lettre liée à united nations ruban; elle le reçoit d'un air inquiet & rêveur" (In the other, a shepherdess in the countryside receives a swan that carries a alphabetic character tied by a ribbon; she receives it with a worried and dreamy expression). Quoted in Anonymous [probably Père Marc Antoine Laugier], Jugement d'un amateur sur l'exposition des tableaux, Lettre à Yard. le Marquis de V*** (Paris, 1753), in Catalogue de la collection de pieces sur les Beaux-Arts (Paris, 1881), 59:29 – 30. As their dates betoken, the pictures were produced in 1750, but their inclusion at the Salon of 1753 presupposes that they were not installed at Bellevue until sometime after the exhibition closed. While the château was defended in Nov 1750, work on the interior connected until 1754. [10] [10]
Fiske Kimball, The Creation of the Rococo (Philadelphia, 1943), 195; Paul Biver, Histoire du Château de Meudon (Paris, 1923), 57, who notes that the room, only off the rex's bedroom, was known as the chambre doré. Examination of the surfaces of the canvases suggests that the compositions were framed equally ovals in boiseries. [11] [eleven]
Meet Technical Notes; The Interrupted Sleep is still framed every bit an oval. In any event, the paintings did not remain for long in the paneling of Bellevue. They very likely were removed around 1757, when the château was ceded to the king's daughters and much of its contents were emptied. [12] [12]
Run into Christopher Tadgell, Ange-Jacques Gabriel (London, 1978), 155 – 157. The fact that they were no longer in situ at Bellevue is confirmed by subsequently editions of d'Argenville'southward Voyage pittoresque and by the inscription on Ouvrier'south engraving of 1761 ("Tiré du Chiffonier de Madame la Marquise de Pompadour"; run into Pierrette Jean-Richard, 50'oeuvre gravée de François Boucher dans la collection Edmond de Rothschild [Paris, 1978]), which implies that by that engagement they had already been made into easel pictures. They are next recorded in 1764 in the vestibule on the footing flooring of the Hôtel d'Évreux (at present the Palais de l'Élysée), Pompadour'due south Parisian residence. An inventory of the marquise's effects drawn upwardly in 1764 following her decease described them there, forth with other paintings from Bellevue. [13] [xiii]
"Dans le vestibulle au rez-de-chaussée: . . . 1231.-No. 79. . . . Deux autres tableaux du même maître, peints en mil sept cent cinquante, représentants des pastoralles; prisés neuf cens livres" (In the entrance hall on the footing flooring: . . . 1231.-No. 79. . . . Two other pictures by the same master, painted in 1750, representing pastorals; value 900 pounds [livres]). Jean Cordey, Inventaire des biens de Madame de Pompadour rédigé après son décès (Paris, 1939), 90. Eighteen years later they resurfaced in the sale of the marquis de Ménars et de Marigny (1727 – 1781), Pompadour'due south brother, who had inherited the bulk of her manor. The National Gallery of Art'southward painting is described in sufficient detail that we can be certain of the identification: "Two young women are seated on the grass, attaching a letter to the neck of a pigeon. They are surrounded by a number of sheep and a domestic dog in front of a pleasing and picturesque landscape." [14] [14]
"Deux jeunes filles assises sur united nations gazon, attachant une lettre au col d'une colombe. Elles sont entourées de plusieurs moutons et d'un chien, sur un fond de paysage agréable et pittoresque." The entry goes on to notation the engraving by Ouvrier and the dimensions of the picture (ii  i/2 ft. loftier past 27 in. wide in eighteenth-century measurements); see F. Basan and F. Ch. Joullain, Catalogue des différens objets de curiosité dans les sciences et les arts qui composoient le cabinet de feu M. le Marquis de Ménars (Paris, 1782), 336, no. 17; the Metropolitan Museum of Art's picture is fully described under no. 13.

Pompadour's enthusiasm for Boucher is well established, and Bellevue was the setting for several of his nearly impressive productions. [15] [xv]
Run across Danielle Gallet-Guerne, Madame de Pompadour ou le pouvoir féminin (Paris, 1985), 132 – 136; Madame de Pompadour et les arts (Paris, 2002), 99 – 116. Boucher, of grade, was non the simply painter to decorate Bellevue. Among the significant works by other artists were two landscapes by Claude-Joseph Vernet (French, 1714 - 1789), caused by Pompadour'southward brother, the marquis de Marigny, during his trip to Italy in 1749 – 1751, and important decorations by Carle Van Loo (French, 1705 - 1765), including a set of four overdoors representing Allegories of the Arts (1752 – 1753, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco), painted for the Salon de Compagnie (run across Pierre Rosenberg and Marion C. Stewart, French Paintings 1500 – 1825: The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco [San Francisco, 1987], 292 – 306); and a suite of exotic subjects painted for the chambre à la turque (for an assessment of this room'south political significance, encounter Perrin Stein, "Madame de Pompadour and the Harem Imagery at Bellevue," Gazette des Beaux-Arts ser. 6, 123 [January. 1994]: 29 – 44). Besides the overdoors described here, Boucher painted two scintillating pictures of Venus for the appartement des bains, The Toilet of Venus (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Fine art) and The Bath of Venus ; [16] [16]
For the Metropolitan picture, run across Alexandre Ananoff with Daniel Wildenstein, François Boucher (Lausanne and Paris, 1976), 2: no. 376; Alastair Laing, François Boucher (1703 – 1770) (New York, 1986), no. threescore. what is probably the artist's most historic religious picture show, the so-chosen Lumière du monde (Lyon, Musée des Beaux-Arts), for the chapel; [17] [17]
Alexandre Ananoff with Daniel Wildenstein, François Boucher (Lausanne and Paris, 1976), ii: no. 340; Alastair Laing, François Boucher (1703 – 1770) (New York, 1986), no. 57. and the pendant masterpieces The Rising of the Sun and The Setting of the Sun (London, Wallace Collection), woven at Beauvais. [xviii] [18]
Alexandre Ananoff with Daniel Wildenstein, François Boucher (Lausanne and Paris, 1976), nos. 422 – 423. While the tapestries were intended for Bellevue, evidence suggests that the paintings were also displayed in the château; run into John Ingamells, The Wallace Collection: Catalogue of Pictures (London, 1989), 3:68 – 78. Thus in the mid-1750s visitors to Bellevue could enjoy an extraordinary survey of Boucher's art in several genres, including mythologies, a devotional painting, and the category near closely identified with his paw, the pastoral.

The latter genre was perhaps nearly amenable to the function of Bellevue, with its hitting site overlooking the Seine and its luxuriant and intimate gardens. [19] [19]
See Paul Biver, Histoire du Château de Meudon (Paris, 1923); Danielle Gallet-Guerne, Madame de Pompadour ou le pouvoir féminin (Paris, 1985), 132 – 138. On Pompadour's office in the construction and decoration of the château, come across Donald Posner, "Madame de Pompadour as a Patron of the Visual Arts," Art Bulletin 72, no. i (March 1990): 81 – 84; Madame de Pompadour et les arts (Paris, 2002), 99 – 109. Co-ordinate to Pompadour, "It's a delightful site for the view, and the firm, while non very large, is accommodating and mannerly, and not without a sort of magnificence." [xx] [20]
"C'est un endroit délicieux pour la vue, la maison, quoique pas bien grande, est commode et charmante, sans nulle espèce de magnificence." Quoted in Christopher Tadgell, Ange-Jacques Gabriel (London, 1978), 157. The château, the only residence congenital for the marquise from the basis upwardly, had been designed every bit a retreat for her and the king, although presently later on its completion, their relationship had changed from carnal to platonic. [21] [21]
On this signal, encounter Katherine K. Gordon, "Madame de Pompadour, Pigalle, and the Iconography of Friendship," Fine art Bulletin 50, no. 3 (Sept. 1968): 249 – 262; and Donald Posner, "Madame de Pompadour every bit a Patron of the Visual Arts," Art Bulletin 72, no. one (March 1990): 77; Pigalle'south marble Amitié (Paris, Musée du Louvre), function of Pompadour's iconographic entrada celebrating her new friendship with the king, originally graced the "Bosquet de 50'flirtation" at Bellevue. Katherine K. Gordon, "Madame de Pompadour, Pigalle, and the Iconography of Friendship," Fine art Bulletin 50, no. 3 (Sept. 1968): 257, fig. 14. At Bellevue in 1751 Madame de Pompadour played the role of the male lead, Colin, in a production of Jean François Marmontel'due south (1723 – 1799) pastoral operetta Le Devin du village. [22] [22]
D. G. Charlton, New Images of the Natural in France: A Study in European Cultural History 1750 – 1800 (Cambridge, 1984), twenty. The influence of the literary pastoral was not lost on commentators who admired The Love Letter of the alphabet and The Interrupted Slumber at the Salon of 1753. The abbé Leblanc noted that Boucher had about invented the pastoral field of study in painting, simply as Fontenelle had brought new life to pastoral imagery in literature: "The Eclogues of M. de Fontenelle take enriched our pastorals with a new kind of shepherd, notable for the gallantry and delicacy of their sentiments. Those that M. Boucher has introduced into painting bring together all the merits of the former with a precious simplicity and naiveté that are not ever those of Thou. de Fontenelle." [23] [23]
"Les Eglogues de M. de Fontenelle ont enrichi nos Pastorales d'une nouvelle espèce de Bergers, remarquables par la galanterie et les délicatesse de leurs sentimens. Ceux que M. Boucher a introduit dans la Peinture, joignant à tout le mérite des premiers cette simplicité et cette naïveté si précieuse que n'ont pas toujours ceux de M. de Fontenelle." Jean Bernard abbé Leblanc, Observations sur les ouvrages de MM. de l'Académie de peinture et de sculpture, exposés au Salon du Louvre en fifty'année 1753. . . . (Paris, 1753), 17 – eighteen. On Boucher and the painted pastoral, see Alastair Laing, "Boucher et la pastorale peinte," Revue de fifty'Art 73 (1986): 55 – 64.

In the 1740s and 1750s Boucher was one of the most prolific painters of pastoral decorations, and his overdoor panels were oft treated in pairs or series intended to represent allegories such as the Times of Day or the 4 Seasons. [24] [24]
For example, the Iv Seasons (New York, Frick Collection), painted in 1755 for Madame de Pompadour. Alexandre Ananoff with Daniel Wildenstein, François Boucher (Lausanne and Paris, 1976), 2: nos. 454 – 457. The Washington and New York canvases represent an innovative solution to relating decorative paintings, for here Boucher sought to create a narrative link between them, fanciful though information technology may be, centered on the developing love of a shepherd and a shepherdess. As the Goncourts observed, "Rustic life at [Boucher's] touch became an ingenious romance of nature." [25] [25]
Edmond de Goncourt and Jules de Goncourt, L'art du dix-huitième siècle, 2 vols. (Paris, 1880 – 1884), 1:147; translation by Robin Ironside in French Eighteen Century Painters (New York, 1948), 67. In The Interrupted Sleep the youth teases the object of his angel every bit he tries to win her over; in The Beloved Letter of the alphabet we see the later stage of a relationship, where a young adult female confides in her friend, who encourages her to send what is undoubtedly a honey letter. This "narrative," such as it is, is understated, for we cannot even be sure if we are meant to believe it is the same shepherdess in each painting; her dress take inverse and she is accompanied past a different dog. Boucher continued this strategy in later works, such every bit the pastoral paintings made for Madame Geoffrin and exhibited at the Salon of 1765. [26] [26]
Alexandre Ananoff with Daniel Wildenstein, François Boucher (Lausanne and Paris, 1976), 2: nos. 593 – 596. By then, even so, he had tired the patience of his critics, who grew increasingly frustrated with his candy-box representations of a dreamlike peasant life. [27] [27]
For a survey of the critical response to Boucher's later work, see Brunel, "Boucher, neveu de Rameau," in Diderot et fifty'art de Boucher à David: les Salons, 1759 – 1781 (Paris, 1984), 101 – 109. When he painted the present canvases in 1750, however, Boucher still could be credited with offering something new, even if the field of study of the pastoral could be traced to artists of an earlier generation, such as Nicolas Lancret and Antoine Watteau. [28] [28]
For example, the subject of The Interrupted Sleep probably was inspired by a similar treatment past Lancret, known equally La Taquine (The Teaser), in which the woman teases the man; see Georges Wildenstein, Lancret (Paris, 1924), nos. 135 – 136. In its review of the 1753 Salon, for example, the Mercure de France noted that "Thousand. Boucher has continued to delight us by the grace and amuse of his compositions . . . in the overdoors made for Bellevûe." [29] [29]
"G. Boucher a continué de ravir par les graces et les agrémens de sa composition . . . dans les dessus de portes faits pour Bellevûe." Comte de Caylus, "Expositions des ouvrages de 50'Académie Royale. . . ." Mercure de France (Oct. 1753): 3. Others expressed similar sentiments: "His two pieces characterize best the author's lively and cheerful imagination, filled throughout with wit and amuse. He has created a genre that is suitable to himself, and we are obliged to admit that he has succeeded admirably at information technology." [30] [30]
"Ces deux morceaux caracterisent toujours mieux la vive et riante imagination de l'Auteur, qui met par-tout de l'esprit et des graces. Il southward'est fait united nations genre qui lui est propre; et on est obligé de convenir qu'il y a réussit éminemment." Anonymous [probably Père Marc Antoine Laugier], Jugement d'un amateur sur l'exposition des tableaux, Lettre à Thousand. le Marquis de V*** (Paris, 1753), in Catalogue de la collection de pieces sur les Beaux-Arts (Paris, 1881), 59:29 – 30.

Boucher's two compositions must have been popular, for numerous copies are recorded, and the composition of The Dear Letter of the alphabet inspired a host of bottom artists and decorators, appearing as an oval tapestry, as ornamentation on snuffboxes, and in gouaches past Boucher'due south son-in-law Pierre Antoine Baudouin (1723 – 1769). [31] [31]
For the tapestry, see Alexandre Ananoff with Daniel Wildenstein, François Boucher (Lausanne and Paris, 1976), ii:18, fig. 928; the dog appears on a snuffbox in the Wrightsman Collection, New York (F. J. B. Watson and Carl Dauterman, The Wrightsman Collection, 5 vols. [New York, 1966 – 1973], 140 – 143); 1 of the Baudouins is in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (Schlichting Collection); another, on ivory, is in the Jones Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum, London (encounter Oliver Brackett, Catalogue of the Jones Collection, 3 vols. [London, 1922 – 1924], 2:68, no. 588, repro., who lists other copies). Boucher himself — or, more probable, his studio assistants — painted a more upright version, en camaieu rose, supposedly for Madame de Pompadour's apartments at Versailles [fig. four] [fig. 4] Workshop of François Boucher, The Letter (Le Billet-Doux), 1750s, oil on canvas, location unknown . [32] [32]
Paired with a picture chosen The Shepherdess; both paintings are oil on canvas, 125.5 × 89 cm (49 1/ii × 35 in.); J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, A71.P23 / 24; for numerous copies, see Alexandre Ananoff with Daniel Wildenstein, François Boucher (Lausanne and Paris, 1976), 2:66 – 67. In a more profound way, these small pictures sparked the imagination of Boucher'southward greatest pupil, Jean Honoré Fragonard (French, 1732 - 1806), who employed the older artist'south strategy in a far more aggressive project, painted for Pompadour's successor as purple mistress, Madame du Barry (1743 – 1793): the celebrated Progress of Beloved cycle (New York, Frick Collection), in which once again a series of amorous episodes link a group of decorative pictures. [33] [33]
On the question of "narrative" in Fragonard'south cycle, see Donald Posner, "The True Path of Fragonard'southward Progress of Love," Burlington Magazine 114, no. 833 (Aug. 1972): 526 – 534; Mary D. Sheriff, Fragonard: Art and Eroticism (Chicago, 1990), 93 – 94.

This text was previously published in Philip Conisbee et al., French Paintings of the Fifteenth through the Eighteenth Century, The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue (Washington, DC, 2009), 12–xviii.

Collection data may have been updated since the publication of the print book. Additional light adaptations take been made for the presentation of this text online.

Richard Rand

Jan 1, 2009

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Source: https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.46027.html

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