La Toilette by François Boucher

François Boucher (29 September 1703 – 30 May 1770) “was a French painter, a proponent of Rococo taste, known for his idyllic and voluptuous paintings on classical themes, decorative allegories representing the arts or pastoral occupations, intended as a sort of two-dimensional furniture. He also painted several portraits of his illustrious patroness, Louis XV’s official mistress, Madame de Pompadour.” (Wikipedia)

The son of an artist, François Boucher won the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1723.  He was influenced by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and Peter Paul Rubens.  On his return from Rome, he did engravings of drawings by Antoine Watteau.  Later, “[a]fter illustrating an edition of Molière’s works, he drew cartoons of farmyard scenes and chinoiserie for the Beauvais tapestry factory.”[i]

News of his talents quickly reached Versailles.  He worked for the queen and for Mme de Pompadour, the chief mistress of Louis XV and Boucher’s friend and patron. “He became a member of the Royal Academy in 1734 and then became the principal producer of designs for the royal porcelain factories, as well as director of the Gobelins tapestry factory. In 1765 he became director of the Royal Academy and held the title of first painter to King Louis XV.”[ii] 

Madame de Pompadour by François Boucher (please click on the picture to enlarge it)

Rococo art, decoration and architecture are characterized by movement. It is a busy and often features a profusion of fabrics.  It followed the baroque, a more restrained style.  Rococo æsthetics is in fact an extreme that called for a return to sober depictions and more serious contents that would reflect the intellectual endeavour of the Encyclopédistes.  For instance, although Jacques-Louis David was a student of François Boucher, he is a neoclassicist.  As for Boucher, his art typifies the lightheartedness that preceded the French Revolution.  We see opulence and hear laughter, but a storm is approaching.  In this regard, Boucher’s art resembles that of Antoine Watteau (1684 – 1721) and Jean-Honoré Fragonard 1732 – 1806).