SwissArtGallery · Documented identity

François Boucher

Born : 1703Died : 1770Documented citizenships : France

François Boucher, a painter born in Paris in 1703 and who died in 1770, pursued a practice that extended well beyond painting: he also designed theatre sets, tapestries, book illustrations and porcelain figures. While his erotic pastoral and mythological scenes are among the works for which he is particularly known, his oeuvre also includes altarpieces, genre scenes, portraits and landscapes.

His training is thought to have begun with his father and to have continued briefly with François Le Moyne. He studied Watteau’s work and won the Prix de Rome at the Academy in 1723. His first commission for the king dates from 1735. From 1750, Madame de Pompadour was his principal patron until her death in 1764, according to the National Gallery in London. After Carle van Loo’s death in 1765, Boucher became First Painter to the King and director of the Academy.

The works listed by the Art Institute of Chicago offer an overview of this diversity: Landscape with Rustic Cottage, from around 1760, is shown alongside Are They Thinking about the Grape? (Pensent-ils au raisin?), dated 1747, and a Study of a Triton, dated 1748/53. The same museum attributes the design of The Bird Catcher, from the series The Noble Pastoral, to Boucher in 1748; the tapestry was commissioned no later than June 1778 and woven between 1778 and 1780.

This profile brings together identity references for François Boucher and paintings, drawings and works on paper documented in auction catalogues.

23 references are documented at Dobiaschofsky, Genève Enchères, Schuler, Zofingen, Piguet. Each record links to its source; the amounts are not a general valuation of the artist’s work.

Works recorded at auction

Photograph : Dobiaschofsky · Enlarge image ↗

Dobiaschofsky · Lot 2607

Copy

Pastel

Original catalogue wording

Kopie
pastel

Catalogue period : 2019-05-11

Published result : 750 CHF

Fees not specified in the available data

Estimate : CHF 1000

François Boucher

Works recorded at auction

Copy

Landscape with dovecote and small bridge with a fisherman

Young reclining female nude

In the manner of

In the manner of

References excluded from statistics: attributions and special lots

Original title: École de François Boucher — La Laitière

After Boucher François — Farm by the river

After Boucher François — Portrait of a young lady

Original title: D’après François Boucher — Sylvie délivrée par Aminte

Copy

Circle of FRANÇOIS BOUCHER — Sleeping putto

Copy — The fortune-telling

In the manner of — Pan and Syrinx

Follower of François Boucher — Two drunken putti

Circle of François Boucher — The Watermill

Follower of François Boucher — Young Woman with an Eagle

Attributed to François Boucher — Bust of a young woman

Copy

Attributed to FRANÇOIS BOUCHER — Putto

Attributed to FRANÇOIS BOUCHER — Putto

Follower of François Boucher — Portrait of a Young Woman

Suiveur de François Boucher — François Boucher (1703-1770), suiveur de, Portrait

Dans le goût de François Boucher — Scène galante

Sources and references

Do you own a work by this artist?