The Interrupted Sleep
In Boucher’s pastorals, the dirt and labor of peasant life were set aside in favor of the elegant clothing and idyllic romance popularized by theater pantomimes. Such playacted visions were the roots of Marie Antoinette’s adoption of simple dress and manners at her pleasure dairy, a type of faux-rustic hamlet, at the Château de Versailles. The simplicity of Boucher’s subject belies the complexity of the composition, which is organized around a series of intersecting diagonals. Much admired at the Salon of 1753, this painting was one of a pair of overdoors set into the woodwork of Madame de Pompadour’s Château de Bellevue.
Artwork Details
- Title: The Interrupted Sleep
- Artist: François Boucher (French, Paris 1703–1770 Paris)
- Date: 1750
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dimensions: Overall 32 1/4 x 29 5/8 in. (81.9 x 75.2 cm); painted surface (irregular oval) 31 x 27 3/4 in. (78.7 x 70.5 cm)
- Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: The Jules Bache Collection, 1949
- Object Number: 49.7.46
- Curatorial Department: European Paintings
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