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Francois Boucher

1703-1770

French Rococo Painter

Boucher was the pet painter of the seductive Marquise de Pompadou. The beautiful Marquise often invited the handsome young artist for private painting sessions in her royal chambers while her aging lover, King Louis XV, was away tending courtly matters.

Artistically and Stylistically Influenced by the following Painters: Antoine Watteau, Raphael, Piero della Francesca, Nicolas Poussin and Mantegna

Education -As a youth Boucher's controlling father insisted that the boy apprentice as a designer of embroidery patterns to the celebrated François Lemoyne. Francois soon tired of this tedious girly work and quit to toil in the studio of engraver and illustrator Jean-Francois

Medium - Oil on canvas

Cause of Death - Old Age

Boucher's favorite subjects and themes were buxom milkmaids and nubile young shepherdess. He often employed local peasant girls as his models.

 
About the Rocco Movement
 
'The Art of the Aristocracy'
 
The word is derived from "rocaille" (pebble), but the term referred in particular to the small stones and shells used to adorn the interiors of grottoes. Such shells or shell forms were the primary motifs in Rococo ornament.
 
The Rococo style began as a backlash against Baroque formality and stuffiness. Unlike Baroque, Rococo is not concerned with religious matters or dramatic expression. The highly decorative art and design movement began in Paris, France in the early 1700s. The style is profoundly symbolic of the self-indulgence of European aristocratic rulers. Rocco manner is characterized by graceful, enchanting, lighthearted themes and seldom features anything of substance. Paintings are animated and clever, reflecting an impishly sensual daydream. 
 
Rococo Portraiture
 
Rocco paintings feature beautiful aristocrats decked out in velvet, elegant laces and rich golden embroideries. The figures are tall and willowy, stylish and charming. The faces are presented as soft and rosy, effeminate and eternally young. Noblemen are depicted wearing feminine coiffeurs, rouged lips and cheeks, often sporting high heels. In a way they resemble modern day drag queens. The Rocco female figures are delicate and light; the faces, are childish and sentimental. The lines of the mouth curve in soft mischief or in a delicate enchanting smile. 
 
Characteristic of Rococo art was paintings of carefree aristocrats at play in make-believe settings. These romantic scenes depict luxuriously costumed ladies and gentlemen flirting, picnicking and playing music at gallant country parties.  The background scenery is often a serene natural setting with delicate trees and sprays of roses. Colors are a profusion of soothing, light pastels. The Rococo movement was initially restricted to France, later spreading to all of Europe and above all to Germany. The movement continued to develop until the arrival of Neoclassicism which attempted to return to the purism of classical antiquity.
 
Principle Artists of the Rococo Period
 
Pompeo Batoni Italian,1708-1787
Bernardo Bellotto Italian,1720-1780
Francois Boucher French, 1703-1770
Canaletto Italian, 1697-1768
Jean-Baptiste Simeon Chardin French, 1699-1779
Jean-Honoré Fragonard French, 1732-1806
Thomas Gainsborough English, 1727-1823
Francisco de Goya Spanish, 1746-1828
Thomas Hudson English,1701-1779
Jean-Marc Nattier French, 1685-1766
Joshua Reynolds English, 1723-1792
Paul Sandby English, 1730-1809
Jean Antoine Watteau French, 1684-1721

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