A Study for Two Nymphs
c. 1749
François Boucher French, 1703-1770
France
“I have seen enough of bosoms and buttocks,” wrote the French philosopher and critic Denis Diderot (1713–1784), discussing the paintings of François Boucher.
What Diderot and others considered Boucher’s decadent frivolity was associated with the excesses and corruption of the monarchy (Boucher was named first painter to the king in 1765). In other words, Boucher’s work was seen as embodying, in aesthetic form, everything that led to the French Revolution. His style was rejected by the next generation of artists in France in favor of a simpler, more honest style inspired by ancient Rome and Greece.
Black chalk, with stumping and red chalk, heightened with white chalk, on buff laid paper, laid down on cream laid card