Background
François Boucher was born on September 29, 1703 in Paris, Kingdom of France (present-day Paris, France). He was a son of Nicolas Boucher, a painter.
42 Avenue des Gobelins, 75013 Paris, France
In 1755, François was given the directorship of the Royal Gobelins Manufactory.
42 Avenue des Gobelins, 75013 Paris, France
In 1755, François was given the directorship of the Royal Gobelins Manufactory.
François Boucher was born on September 29, 1703 in Paris, Kingdom of France (present-day Paris, France). He was a son of Nicolas Boucher, a painter.
Initially, François studied art under the guidance of his father. Some time later, recognizing his son's artistic potential, Nicolas Boucher placed young François in the studio of François Lemoyne, a decorator-painter, who worked in the manner of Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. Though, Boucher remained in Lemoyne's studio only for a short time, he probably derived his love of delicately voluptuous forms and his brilliant color palette from the older master's penchant for mimicking the Venetian decorative painters.
Some time later, Boucher joined the workshop of Jean François Cars, where he learned the fundamentals of engraving. In 1723, he won the elite Grand Prix de Rome for Painting and in 1727, he went to Italy with the painter Carle Vanloo, remaining there for four years. On his return from Italy, François was admitted to the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture on 24 November 1731.
After his return to France from Italy, Boucher created hundreds of paintings, decorative boudoir panels, tapestry designs and book illustrations. In 1734, he was appointed a faculty member at the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in Paris. In the 1740's and 1750's, Boucher designed stage sets for Charles Simon Favart and Jean Monnet.
Some time later, in 1755, François was given the directorship of the Royal Gobelins Manufactory and ten years later, in 1765, he was made a court painter. The same year, François was appointed a director of the Royal Academy. Also, in his later years, Boucher was employed by Madame de Pompadour both to paint her portrait and to execute various decorative works.
During his lifetime, Boucher executed many mythological scenes, especially those, in which Venus was a part. He also painted allegorical series, village fairs, scenes of fashionable Paris life, playfully exotic "Chinese" scenes, literary subjects, pastorals, landscapes and portraits. He even painted a few religious subjects. In every vein, Boucher epitomizes the Rococo combination of fresh observation and decorative refinement of sensuous immediacy and playful artificiality.
Boucher lived long enough to see the declining of his artistic popularity. After 1760, his work was attacked by the famed encyclopedist and art critic Denis Diderot.
Boucher was an extremely prolific painter, who executed more than 1,000 paintings, at least 200 engravings and more than 10,000 drawings in various media.
Today, his works can be found in major international collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the Louvre in Paris, the Prado in Madrid and the National Gallery in London.
Mars and Venus
Venus comforts Amor
Portrait of Madame Boucher
Venus and Vulcan
The Bridge
Head of King Louis XV
Marquise de Pompadour
Jupiter and Callisto
Madame de Pompadour
Woman's Head
The Mill
Charms of Country Life
Lady with an Umbrella
The interrupted sleep
Young Woman with Flowers in Her Hair wrongly called Portrait of Madame Boucher
The Enchanted Home A Pastoral Landscape Surmounted by Cupid
Portrait of Marie-Louis O’Murphy (Nude on a Sofa)
The Setting of the Sun
Portrait of the artist's wife
The Toilet
Portrait of Carl Gustaf Tessin
The Modiste
Seated Nude
The Toilet of Venus
The Fountain of Love
Amor a prisoner
Madame Bergeret
Birth of Venus
Vulcan Presenting Arms to Venus for Aeneas
Diana getting out of her bath
Diana after the Hunt
The Rape of Europa
Venus Restraining Cupid
The Rising of the Sun
Landscape with the brother Lucas
Breakfast
Venus and Cupid
An Autumn Pastoral
Young Woman Sleeping
Rinaldo and Armida
Shepherd and Shepherdess Reposing
Portrait of Louis Philippe of Orléans
Landscape near Beauvais early
The beautiful kitchen
Landscape with Kirschpflückerin
Portrait of a Lady with Muff
Apollo Revealing his Divinity to the Shepherdess Isse
Summer Pastoral
The Abduction of Europe
Pygmalion and Galatea
Head of a Woman from Behind
Young Woman with a Bouquet of Roses
Geniuses of arts
Odalisque
Hercules and Omfala
Pan and Syrinx
The Light of the World
Rinaldo and Armida
The Rest on the Flight into Egypt
River Landscape with Ruin and Bridge
Adoration of the Magi
The Wedding of Psych et de l'Amour
The Birth and Triumph of Venus
The Chinese Garden
Leda and the Swan
The Painter in his Studio
Venus
St. Peter Invited to Walk on the Water
Portrait of the artist's daughter
They Thinking About the Grape
Fishing
In 1733, Boucher married Marie-Jeanne Buzeau, who frequently modeled for his paintings. Their marriage produced two girls and a boy. Juste-Nathan François Boucher, the son, died at a young age. Both daughters, Elizabeth Victoire and Marie Emilie, married pupils of their father: the painters Jean Baptiste Deshays and Pierre Antoine Boudouin, both of whom predeceased their father-in-law.
