Beschreibung:

Details
FRANÇOIS BOUCHER (PARIS 1703-1770)
Un couple de bergers
huile sur toile
58,4 x 72,8 cm. (23 x 28 2/3 in.)
Provenance
Peut-être vente anonyme, Grande Salle de la maison de Bullion, rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau 9 frimaire an II (29 novembre 1793), lot 19 (comme 'François Boucher').
Vente anonyme, Moulins, 6 avril 2008, lot 208 (comme 'Ecole française du XVIII. Entourage de François Boucher').
Vente anonyme, Dorotheum, Vienne, 14 octobre 2008, lot 39 (comme 'Jean Baptiste Huet').
Collection particulière européenne.
Special notice
These lots have been imported from outside the EU for sale and placed under the Temporary Admission regime.
Import VAT is payable at 5,5% on the hammer price. VAT at 20% will be added to the buyer’s premium but will not be shown separately
on our invoice.
Post lot text
FRANÇOIS BOUCHER, A SHEPHERD AND SHEPHERDESS, OIL ON CANVAS
Likely dating from the 1730s, this painting was executed quite early on in the career of François Boucher (1703-1770). After returning from Rome in 1731, the artist became a highly sought-after painter in Paris, especially for his pastoral scenes. This taste for an idealised version of bucolic life was to permeate the entire century, and Boucher's numerous shepherdesses in aristocratic dress were to adorn the walls of palaces throughout Europe. Another version of the present painting, now in St. Petersburg (Hermitage Museum, inv. no. ГЭ-1275), was originally in the collection of Catherine the Great (1729-1796).
We would like to thank Alastair Laing for confirming the attribution to François Boucher based on an examination of a photographic reproduction of the work.