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| François Boucher The Bath of Venus 1751 National Gallery of Art (U.S.) |
"I don't know what to say about this man. Degradation of taste, color, composition, character, expression, and drawing have kept pace with moral depravity. What can we expect this artist to throw onto the canvas? What he has in his imagination. And what can be in the imagination of a man who spends his life with prostitutes of the basest kind? ... He can show me all the clouds he likes, I'll always see in them the rouge, the beauty spots, the powder puffs, and all the little vials of the make-up table."
So wrote the great Denis Diderot in his book-length report on the Salon of 1765. Yet these expressions of animosity were nothing new or unusual. Poor Boucher received rhetorical beatings from Diderot at frequent intervals. Boucher personified the frivolousness of rococo itself, of which Diderot deeply disapproved. But he considered that Boucher's truly gravest sin was to be old-fashioned, out of date, which also in this case involved moral corruption. Painting for the 1760s must no longer be Ornamental, but Enlightening. The irony is that most of the French artists preferred and advocated by Diderot have faded from view, while Boucher's work has continued to be endorsed, enjoyed and seriously admired by succeeding generations without interruption for 250 years.
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| François Boucher Young girl with bird cage 18th century drawing Morgan Library, New York |
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| François Boucher Danaë receiving the shower of gold 1757 drawing National Gallery of Art (U.S.) |
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| François Boucher Fallen Huntsman ca. 1736 drawing Metropolitan Museum of Art |
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| François Boucher Woman seen from the back ca. 1720 etching Clark Art Institute |
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| François Boucher Inspiration 18th century drawing Morgan Library, New York |
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| François Boucher Pan and Syrinx 1759 National Gallery, London |
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| François Boucher Pan and Syrinx ca. 1760-65 Prado |
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| François Boucher Madame de Pompadour 1758 Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| François Boucher Toilet of Venus 1751 Metropolitan Museum of Art commissioned by Madame de Pompadour |
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| François Boucher after Jean-AntoineWatteau Standing woman from the back ca. 1715-30 etching Rijksmuseum |
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| François Boucher Man dressed as a woman early 18th century drawing Rijksmuseum |
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| François Boucher Arion saved by a dolphin 1748 canvas Princeton University Art Museum |
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| François Boucher Cupid wounding Psyche 1741 Los Angeles County Museum of Art |