Known for graceful mythologies and charming scenes of rustic genre, Boucher produced relatively few religious paintings for a history painter of his standing. Those he did make were typically of an intimate scale intended for private devotion. These small paintings are quintessential expressions of the Rococo idiom, typified by lithe, elegant figures, a lush handling of the medium, and a preference for compositions based on the arabesque. Here, in the rustic subject of the Adoration of the Shepherds, Flemish painting and the oil sketches of Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione are recalled, but in Boucher's hands the subject takes on a lightness and delicacy that distinguishes it from such sources.
Although similar in composition to an altarpiece of the same subject commissioned just before 1750 by Madame de Pompadour, the famed mistress of King Louis XV, this sketch was likely painted at a later date as an independent work. In both the completed altarpiece and this sketch Boucher uses a transient golden light radiating out from the celestial opening to anchor his composition. The heavenly light falls upon the Christ child, and the adoring onlookers cast vibrant, translucent shadows. Boucher skillfully explores the richness of light and color especially apparent in the opaque, creamy clouds and the surprising dabs of red paint in the flesh tones of the Virgin and Child.
Perrin Stein, October 2014
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Artwork Details
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Title:The Adoration of the Shepherds
Artist:François Boucher (French, Paris 1703–1770 Paris)
Medium:Gouache over black chalk underdrawing, on paper, mounted on canvas
Dimensions:16 1/4 x 11 in. (41.3 x 27.9 cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:Purchase, David T. Schiff Gift, and Rogers and Harris Brisbane Dick Funds, 1997
Object Number:1997.95
Marking: Partial collector's mark of Damery (Lugt 2862) at the lower right; collector's mark of Jules and Edmond de Goncourt (Lugt 1089) at bottom center
Chevalier de Damery (French)his sale, Paris, November 18-19, 1803, lot 2.; Mathieu-Guillaume-Thérèse de Villenave (French)Villenave sale, Paris, June 14-18, 1847 (auction postponed until February 1, 1848), lot 67; Edmond de Goncourt (French)Lugt 1089; Goncourt collection sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Feb. 15-17, 1897, lot 23.; Etienne-François Haro acquired at Goncourt sale; Baron Joseph Raphaël Vitta His collection sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, June 27-28, 1924, lot 30; Leon Lowenstein Lowenstein sale, Galerie Jean Charpentier, Paris, December 17, 1935, lot 17; John Pape Acquired at Lowenstein sale, Paris, 1935; Mme. Carterton; Vendor: Wildenstein & Co., Ltd., London
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Eighteenth-Century French Drawings in New York Collections," February 3–April 25, 1999.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Drawings and Prints: Selections from the Permanent Collection," October 20, 2008–January 11, 2009.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Drawings and Prints: Selections from the Permanent Collection," November 26, 2012–February 24, 2013.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Paper Chase: Two Decades of Collecting Drawings and Prints," December 9, 2014–March 16, 2015.
Michel 748, 757 Ananoff 1980.384
Philippe de Chennevières "Les Dessins de maîtres anciens exposés à l'École des Beaux-Arts (quatrième article)." in Gazette des Beaux-Arts. vol. 19, Paris, September 1879, p. 196.
Catalogue descriptif des dessins de maîtres anciens exposés à l'École des Beaux-Arts, mai-juin 1879. Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris, second. Paris, 1879, cat. no. 518.
Edmond de Goncourt L'art du dix-huitième siècle. 2 vols., 3rd edition. Paris, 1880–1882, p. 188.
Edmond de Goncourt La maison d'un artiste. 2 vols., nouvelle. Paris, 1881, p. 54, vol. 1.
André Michel François Boucher: Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint et dessiné. Paris, 1906, cat. no. 748, 757, pp. 41, 42.
Carlo Jeannerat "L'adoration des bergers' de F. Boucher." Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire de l'Art Français. Paris, 1932, pp. 81-82.
Pierre de Nolhac Exposition François Boucher (1703-1770) exh. cat., Paris, Hôtel Charpentier. Paris, 1932, cat. no. 2, p. 2.
Exposition Goncourt Exh. cat., Paris, Gazette des Beaux-Arts. Paris, 1933, cat. no. 174, p. 68.
Mario Roustan Exposition de l'art français au XVIIIe siècle: Catalogue Exh. cat., Copenhagen, Palais de Charlottenborg. Paris, 1935, cat. no. 22.
Regina Shoolman Slatkin François Boucher in North American Collections: 100 Drawings. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., December 23, 1973-March 17, 1974; Art Institute of Chicago, April 4-May 12, 1974. Washington D.C., 1973, cat. no. under no. 67, p. 87.
Alexandre Ananoff, Daniel Wildenstein François Boucher. 2 vols., Lausanne and Paris, 1976, cat. no. 362, fig. no. 1064, p. 64, vol. 2, ill.
Alexandre Ananoff, Daniel Wildenstein L'opera completa di Boucher. Milan, 1980, cat. no. 384, fig. no. 116, p. 117, ill.
Sonia Dean Master Drawings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Victoria. Exh. cat., Melbourne, National Gallery of Victoria. 1980, p. 90.
François Boucher: A Loan Exhibition for the Benefit of the New York Botanical Garden. Exh. cat. Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York, 1980, cat. no. 19, fig. no. 19, p. 40, ill.
Denys Sutton François Boucher. Ex. cat. Tokyo, April 24 - June 23, 1982, cat. no. 44, pp. 174, 76, ill.
Elizabeth Launay Les frères Goncourt collectionneurs de dessins. Paris, 1991, Also cited pp. 74, 84, 150 (in. n. 116), 180, 207, cat. no. 27, pp. 236-38, ill.
George R. Goldner, Colta Ives, Carolyn Logan, Perrin Stein "Recent Acquisitions, A Selection: 1996-1997." in The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, n.s., vol. 55, no. 2, Autumn 1997, p. 42, ill.
Alastair Laing "New York French eighteenth-century drawings." Burlington Magazine. vol. 141, no. 1155, London, June 1999, p. 379.
Perrin Stein, Mary Tavener Holmes Eighteenth-Century French Drawings in New York Collections Exh. cat. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1999, cat. no. 52, pp. 118-120, ill.
Jo Hedley François Boucher: Seductive Visions. Paris, 2004, cat. no. footnote 83, pp. 120, 201.
The Arts of France from François Ier to Napoléon Ier: A Centennial Celebration of Wildenstein's Presence in New York. Exh. cat. Wildenstein & Co., Inc., Paris, 2005, cat. no. 107 (Appendix 1), p. 68, ill.
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