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- François Boucher (1703 - 1770)
- Daphnis and Chloe
- France
- 1743
- P385
- Landing
- Bookmarkable URLThe idea of the pastoral, depictions of an ideal rural and idyllic world inhabited by shepherds, goes back to antique literature and had been used increasingly since the Renaissance. Watteau created a Parisian version of the pastoral inhabited by fashionable young people in contemporary clothing. Boucher who was very familiar with Watteau's work from his early career as an engraver painted pastorals from the mid-1730s and developed them in a way that was seen as his own speciality. His pastorals feature gallant shepherds and shepherdesses that are simply but elegantly dressed and follow the decorum of fashionable courting. This painting is an exception in its use of half-naked figures and its openly erotic character. Because of this classicising mood, the painting has been linked to the Greek author Longus’s pastoral romance 'Daphnis and Chloe'.
The main group of the composition closely follows a bronze sculpture (lost, last documented in 1912) that could be by an Italian seventeenth-century artist: A version of it must have been available to Boucher. In this case, it would be a rare example of Boucher following a sculptural model for his paintings. A compositional drawing and studies for both protagonists exist. Boucher might have started with the composition of the bronze group and then studied studio models to prepare both figures for the painting. The compositional drawing is further away from the sculpture and might have been made after the painting.
The painting was cut down, and the painted surface originally had rounded outlines indicating the insertion into a decorative scheme. The viewpoint of the figures suggests the original use as an overdoor.
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- François Boucher (1703 - 1770)
- Shepherd Piping to a Shepherdess
- France
- c. 1747 - 1750
- P399
- Landing
- Bookmarkable URLThe painting is an example of the pastoral in Boucher's work from the late 1740s (see P385). In an Arcadian landscape a shepherd plays the flute to a shepherdess who is about to repay his efforts with a crown of flowers and the reward of her affections.
Boucher repeatedly took his inspiration from the immensely popular pantomimes of Charles-Simon Favart who created a contemporary Parisian version of Arcadian literature. At the opéra comique, where Boucher was both set designer and a keen member of the audience, Favart’s musical dramas combined Arcadian idealism and aristocratic sensibilities with the rustic characters of popular theatre. This painting might illustrate scene V of Favart’s 'Les Vendanges de Tempé' (The Harvest in the Vale of Tempé) of 1745, which opens with the shepherd playing the flute to his sweetheart Lisette - or it is inspired by Favart in more general terms. It was probably painted c.1747-50 in the aftermath of Favart’s stage success. The original, irregular shape of the canvas suggests that the picture originally formed part of a decorative scheme. Neither circumstance of the original commission nor companion pieces are known.
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- François Boucher (1703 - 1770)
- Madame de Pompadour
- France
- 1759
- P418
- Landing
- Bookmarkable URLPompadour has been famous for the important position as a patron and in politics that she obtained as Louis XV's mistress. Because of her great political intelligence, she successfully built and defended a highly influential position at the French court to a degree that was unusual for a mistress of the king. Madame de Maintenon had reached a similar position under Louis XIV and became a model for Pompadour's strategy. Pompadour became royal mistress in 1745 and remained an important political advisor equivalent to a minister after her sexual relationship with the king had ceased. A series of portraits by leading French painters - Jean-Marc Nattier, Boucher, Maurice Quentin de la Tour and Carle Vanloo - was commissioned and launched by her to publicise and strengthen her position in the public sphere. She also commissioned portrait sculptures by leading artists. Each work was intended to launch a specific message about Pompadour. The series has been most fully and most recently analysed by Andrea Weisbrod.
A series of portraits by Boucher, painted between 1750 and 1759, played a central role in this strategy. Boucher's most famous portrait of Pompadour, a life-size full-length painted in 1756, is today in Munich. The Wallace Collection painting is part of a series of smaller portraits.
In the years around 1750, Madame de Pompadour commissioned a series of works of art with friendship and fidelity as their central theme. These have often been interpreted as a reaction to the end of the sexual relationship between Louis XV and Pompadour. This might well be the case, but their most important message is the increased political importance of the Marquise who had become a major political advisor to the king, a position that was based on deep friendship between them. In the 1750s, she began to play the role of quasi-minister. The Wallace Collection’s portrait, the last known portrait Boucher painted of his patron, evokes these ideals by its inclusion of a sculpture depicting Friendship consoling Love that was based upon the work of eighteenth-century sculpor Jean-Baptiste Pigalle. The presence of Madame de Pompadour’s pet spaniel, Inès, shown seated on the bench beside her mistress, also makes reference to the emotions of comfort and security that come with lasting friendship. The parkland setting stresses the 'natural' and honest character of her relationship to the king. Whereas many of her portraits were presented at the Paris Salon, this painting does not seem to have reached a wider audience.
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- François Boucher (1703 - 1770)
- Pastoral Make-Up (La toillette pastorale)
- France
- 1745
- P445
- Landing
- Bookmarkable URLTwo shepherdesses and putti with flowers represent Spring. Originally the painting, together with P447, formed part of a set of four representing the Seasons, all of which were shaped in the same manner and engraved by Charles Duflos in 1751. From their shape and low viewpoints it is clear that they were painted as overdoors to be inserted into decorative panelling. The other two pictures in the series depict the winter as return of Diana from the hunt (Retour de chasse de Diane; Paris, Musée Cognacq-Jay) and summer (Les confidences pastorale; Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art). Two of the seasons were thus depicted in the guise of mythological subjects, two as pastorals. An autograph, signed and dated version of this painting of 1748 was sold at Christie's, New York, 29 January 2014.
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- François Boucher (1703 - 1770)
- Erigone Conquered (Erigone vaincue)
- France
- 1745
- P447
- Landing
- Bookmarkable URLAs described by Ovid, Bacchus, disguised as a bunch of grapes, deceives the nymph Erigone. Originally the painting, together with P442, formed part of a set of four representing the Seasons, all of which were shaped in the same manner and engraved by Charles Duflos in 1751. From their shape and low viewpoints it is clear that they were painted as overdoors to be inserted into decorative panelling. The other two pictures in the series depict the winter as return of Diana from the hunt (Retour de chasse de Diane; Paris, Musée Cognacq-Jay) and summer (Les confidences pastorale; Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art). Two of the seasons were thus depicted in the guise of mythological subjects, two as pastorals.
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- François Boucher (1703 - 1770)
- Pastoral with a Couple near a Fountain
- France
- 1749
- P482
- Landing
- Bookmarkable URLWith its pendant, P482, the painting represents some of Boucher’s most ambitious works in the pastoral mode. Boucher continued the pastoral, utopian mode of Watteau's Fêtes galantes, anchoring them more clearly in an idealised, Italian setting. By exchanging Watteau's contemporary Parisians with idealised shepherds and shepherdesses, he further removed the scenes from a recognizable contemporary reality, transposing them into an entirely imaginary world. While Watteau produced cabinet-sized pictures, Boucher often employed the pastoral for large-scale room decorations, as is the case here.
The two pictures originally belonged to the Daniel-Charles Trudaine, who worked as governor of the Auvergne, before being put in charge of roads and bridges in France, a capacity in which he was responsible for extending and modernising the network considerably. From 1745 he instigated and supervised the production of a new street atlas of France. Trudaine hung the two paintings in the grand salon on the ground floor of his château at Montigny–Lencoup near Fontainebleau.
The scene was inspired by the theatrical characters of the immensely popular pantomimes of Boucher's friend, Charles-Simon Favart. At the Opéra Comique, where Boucher was both set designer and a keen member of the audience, Favart’s musical dramas combined the Arcadian idealism and aristocratic sensibilities of pastoral poetry with the rustic, sentimental characters of popular theatre. Here we see a recreation of scene VI of Favart’s pantomime 'Les Vendanges de Tempé (The Harvest in the Vale of Tempé)', first produced in 1745, where the amorous Little Shepherd feeds grapes to the heroine, Lisette. The watching shepherd to the right is taken from a Rembrandt etching.
Boucher also provided a drawing of the main group to the Sèvres manufacture as a model for a porcelain group.
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- François Boucher (1703 - 1770)
- Pastoral with a Bagpipe Player
- France
- 1749
- P489
- Landing
- Bookmarkable URLWith its pendant, P482, the painting represents some Boucher’s most ambitious works in the pastoral mode. Boucher continued the pastoral, utopian mode of Watteau's Fêtes galantes, anchoring them more clearly in an idealised, Italian setting. By exchanging Watteau's contemporary Parisians with idealised shepherds and shepherdesses, Boucher further removed the scenes from a recognizable contemporary reality, transposing them into an entirely imaginary world. While Watteau produced cabinet-sized pictures, Boucher often employed the pastoral for large-scale room decorations, as is the case here.
The two pictures originally belonged to the Daniel-Charles Trudaine, who worked as governor of the Auvergne, before being put in charge of roads and bridges in France, a capacity in which he was responsible for extending and modernising the network considerably. From 1745 he instigated and supervised the production of a new street atlas of France. Trudaine hung the two paintings in the grand salon on the ground floor of his country house at Montigny–Lencoup near Fontainebleau.
The scene was inspired by the theatrical characters of the immensely popular pantomimes of Boucher's friend, Charles-Simon Favart. At the Opéra Comique, where Boucher was both set designer and a keen member of the audience, Favart’s musical dramas combined the Arcadian idealism and aristocratic sensibilities of pastoral poetry with the rustic, sentimental characters of popular theatre. The painting depicts the cousins Lisette and Babette with the little shepherd who wins his sweetheart’s affection and a crown of flowers by serenading her on the bagpipes.
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- Studio of François Boucher (1703 - 1770)
- La marchande des modes (The Modiste)
- probably c. 1746
- P390
- Landing
- Bookmarkable URLA replica of the picture commissioned in 1745 and delivered in 1746 to Crown Princess Louisa Ulrika of Sweden, now in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm. The subject was originally intended to illustrate Morning in an uncompleted series of the Times of the Day, and is typical of the elegant, contemporary interior scenes painted by Boucher between 1739 and 1746. The Wallace Collection’s picture was probably painted c.1746, before the prime version left the artist’s studio. Although of a good quality, it lacks the vivacity of the original, and was described as ‘after Boucher’ in the sale catalogue of its first owner, Salomon Pierre de Prousteau, in 1769. It served as a model for an engraving by René Gaillard in 1755 ('La marchande des modes') and was probably painted specifically as a model for the engraver.
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- Bookcase
- Jean-Louis Faizelot Delorme (master 1763)
- France
- About 1770
- F386
- Landing
- Bookmarkable URLA pair to F387. These break-fronted bookcases date from the second half of the 18th century, when various cabinetmakers revived the skills of André-Charles Boulle and produced new forms of furniture in his style. Here, the brass and turtleshell marquetry is not quite as rich as that found on furniture by Boulle himself, although the bookcases derive from a type made in his workshop. The central door is mounted with a gilt-bronze figure of Pomona, the goddess of fruitful abundance in Roman mythology.
Sir Richard Wallace bought the bookcases as a young man, acting on behalf of his father, the 4th Marquess of Hertford, for whom he often acted as an agent in the Parisian sale rooms. After inheriting the collection, Wallace exhibited them along with much else at the Bethnal Green Exhibition in 1872–5. In Hertford House, he and Lady Wallace displayed them in the Reynolds Drawing Room (now the Small Drawing Room), alongside English portraits.
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- Bookcase
- Jean-Louis Faizelot Delorme (master 1763)
- France
- About 1770
- F387
- Landing
- Bookmarkable URLA pair to F386. These break-fronted bookcases date from the second half of the 18th century, when various cabinetmakers revived the skills of André-Charles Boulle and produced new forms of furniture in his style. Here, the brass and turtleshell marquetry is not quite as rich as that found on furniture by Boulle himself, although the bookcases derive from a type made in his workshop. The central door is mounted with a gilt-bronze figure of Pomona, the goddess of fruitful abundance in Roman mythology.
Sir Richard Wallace bought the bookcases as a young man, acting on behalf of his father, the 4th Marquess of Hertford, for whom he often acted as an agent in the Parisian sale rooms. After inheriting the collection, Wallace exhibited them along with much else at the Bethnal Green Exhibition in 1872–5. In Hertford House, he and Lady Wallace displayed them in the Reynolds Drawing Room (now the Small Drawing Room), alongside English portraits.
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- Tripod vase
- Attributed to Pierre-Philippe Thomire (1751–1843)
- France
- 1785 - 1786
- F342
- Landing
- Bookmarkable URLNeo-classical tripod vases such as this one and its pair, F343, were inspired by the antique bronze tripods found during excavations at Herculaneum and Pompeii from the 1740s onwards and illustrated in many eighteenth-century folio editions such as the comte de Caylus' Recueil d'antiquités égyptiennes, étruscanes, grecques et romaines, published in 7 volumes from 1752. One of Caylus’s protégés was the architect François-Joseph Belanger, who established the workshop for cutting and mounting hardstones in the Hôtel des Menus-Plaisirs.
The mounts can be attributed to Pierre-Philippe Thomire (1751-1843, master 1772) and dated to 1785-6. They are similar to those on a mounted vase of dark blue Chinese porcelain in the Royal Collection and mounts on various mounted vases of Sèvres porcelain known to have been made by Thomire. A successful entrepreneur and a sculptor by training, Thomire was one of the most important bronze workers of the late eighteenth century and managed to remain successful even during the Revolution. He was an accredited supplier to the Emperor Napoleon in 1809 and yet was able to retain his privileged position even after the Restoration.
The vases were recorded in the 4th Marquess of Hertford's Parisian apartment at 3 rue Taitbout in 1871 and in the Vestibule at Hertford House by 1890.
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- Tripod vase
- Attributed to Pierre-Philippe Thomire (1751–1843)
- France
- 1785 - 1786
- F343
- Landing
- Bookmarkable URLNeo-classical tripod vases such as this one and its pair, F342, were inspired by the antique bronze tripods found during excavations at Herculaneum and Pompeii from the 1740s onwards and illustrated in many eighteenth-century folio editions such as the comte de Caylus's Recueil d'antiquités égyptiennes, étruscanes, grecques et romaines, published in 7 volumes from 1752. One of Caylus’s protégés was the architect François-Joseph Belanger, who established the workshop for cutting and mounting hardstones in the Hôtel des Menus-Plaisirs.
The mounts can be attributed to Pierre-Philippe Thomire (1751-1843, master 1772) and dated to 1785-6. They are similar to those on a mounted vase of dark blue Chinese porcelain in the Royal Collection and mounts on various mounted vases of Sèvres porcelain known to have been made by Thomire. A successful entrepreneur and a sculptor by training, Thomire was one of the most important bronze workers of the late eighteenth century and managed to remain successful even during the Revolution. He was an accredited supplier to the Emperor Napoleon in 1809 and yet was able to retain his privileged position even after the Restoration.
The vases were recorded in the 4th Marquess of Hertford's Parisian apartment at 3 rue Taitbout in 1871 and in the Vestibule at Hertford House by 1890.
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- Filippo della Valle (1698 - 1768)
- Cupid and Psyche
- Rome, Italy
- c. 1730
- S22
- Landing
- Bookmarkable URLThis sculpture depicts Cupid, god of love, and the beautiful mortal woman Psyche. Although adult lovers in the original tale, in art they are often depicted as children. The group is by Filippo della Valle who enjoyed a successful career in Rome, but was somewhat forgotten after his death.
Della Valle’s elegant style has much in common with that of French eighteenth-century sculptors. The group was for a long time attributed to a French sculptor Claude-Augustin Cayot, mainly on the basis of a false signature ‘Cayot 1706’ inscribed on the base. There is a discrepancy between the carved date and the more advanced, almost Rococo style of the sculpture. Research revealed that the group is a documented work of Della Valle. Cayot’s signature was applied later, probably by a dealer. The latter may have had the 4th Marquess of Hertford in mind as a buyer since Lord Hertford already owned a statue by Cayot.
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- Vase
- France
- c. 1765
- F345
- Landing
- Bookmarkable URLDisplayed with its pair, F346, and a similar ewer, F347, as a garniture.
Fluorspar comes from Derbyshire, and is commonly known as Blue John. Mining for it began in about 1760. Parisian marchands-merciers, or luxury goods dealers, were very inventive at selling new and exciting objects in their shops, so it is likely that the Blue John was cut in Derbyshire, then imported to Paris where the mounts were added and the objects sold in a fashionable shop. The style of the mounts on the vases, and their probable date, may indicate that the marchands-merciers were exploiting the decorative possibilities of fluorspar even before Matthew Boulton in England, who made his first substantial purchases of it in 1769.
Although these are displayed together as a garniture, the ewer is a little later than the vases and the mounts are different in style. The kneeling female satyr of the ewer shows the influence of the type of mounts first made by Pierre Gouthière (1732-1813) for Madame du Barry in about 1770, in which one ewer has a gilt-bronze kneeling satyr and the other a kneeling mermaid.
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- Vase
- France
- c. 1765
- F346
- Landing
- Bookmarkable URLDisplayed with its pair, F345, and a similar ewer, F347, as a garniture.
Fluorspar comes from Derbyshire, and is commonly known as Blue John. Mining for it began in about 1760. Parisian marchands-merciers, or luxury goods dealers, were very inventive at selling new and exciting objects in their shops, so it is likely that the Blue John was cut in Derbyshire, then imported to Paris where the mounts were added and the objects sold in a fashionable shop. The style of the mounts on the vases, and their probable date, may indicate that the marchands-merciers were exploiting the decorative possibilities of fluorspar even before Matthew Boulton in England, who made his first substantial purchases of it in 1769.
Although these are displayed together as a garniture, the ewer is a little later than the vases and the mounts are different in style. The kneeling female satyr of the ewer shows the influence of the type of mounts first made by Pierre Gouthière (1732-1813) for Madame du Barry in about 1770, in which one ewer has a gilt-bronze kneeling satyr and the other a kneeling mermaid.
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- Ewer
- France
- c. 1775
- F347
- Landing
- Bookmarkable URLDisplayed with a pair of similar vases, F345 and F346, as a garniture.
Fluorspar comes from Derbyshire, and is commonly known as Blue John. Mining for it began in about 1760. Parisian marchands-merciers, or luxury goods dealers, were very inventive at selling new and exciting objects in their shops, so it is likely that the Blue John was cut in Derbyshire, then imported to Paris where the mounts were added and the objects sold in a fashionable shop. The style of the mounts on the vases, and their probable date, may indicate that the marchands-merciers were exploiting the decorative possibilities of fluorspar even before Matthew Boulton in England, who made his first substantial purchases of it in 1769.
Although these are displayed together as a garniture, the ewer is a little later than the vases and the mounts are different in style. The kneeling female satyr of the ewer shows the influence of the type of mounts first made by Pierre Gouthière (1732-1813) for Madame du Barry in about 1770, in which one ewer has a gilt-bronze kneeling satyr and the other a kneeling mermaid.
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- Vase and cover
- France
- 1770 - 1775
- F352
- Landing
- Bookmarkable URLOval vase of red jasper, streaked with grey, white and buff, mounted with two seated gilt-bronze infant satyrs holding vine swags looped behind their backs. The pedestal of each vase has been cast in several sections: an upper rectangular plinth set on a half-round moulding decorated with a scale pattern; a lower, large rectangular plinth and eight pairs of goats’ hooves, each pair cast separately. Although not by Gouthière, the mounts may date from the same period (1770-5) as the hardstone vases mounted for Gouthière by the duc d’Aumont, including the perfume-burner (F292) displayed in the Study at the Wallace Collection. Although the gilt-bronze mounts are heavier than on Gouthière’s authenticated works, they are nonetheless of very high quality.
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- Vase and cover
- France
- 1770 - 1775
- F353
- Landing
- Bookmarkable URLOval vase of red jasper, streaked with grey, white and buff, mounted with two seated gilt-bronze infant satyrs holding vine swags looped behind their backs. The pedestal of each vase has been cast in several sections: an upper rectangular plinth set on a half-round moulding decorated with a scale pattern; a lower, large rectangular plinth and eight pairs of goats’ hooves, each pair cast separately. Although not by Gouthière, the mounts may date from the same period (1770-5) as the hardstone vases mounted for Gouthière by the duc d’Aumont, including the perfume-burner (F292) displayed in the Study here at the Wallace Collection. Although the gilt-bronze mounts are heavier than on Gouthière’s authenticated works, they are nonetheless of very high quality.
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- France
- Figure of a Vestal
- c. 1790
- S223
- Landing
- Bookmarkable URL
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