Francois Boucher in Rococo Art

               Of all of the eighteenth century artists noted in our textbook, I was most intrigued by the French artist, Francois Boucher. He lived from 1703 to 1730 during the Rococo period, when Parisian artists began to reject some of the strict Baroque elements of art after the French court was moved from Versaille to Paris. The Rococo style consisted of fanciful decorative arts of gold and painting combined curves and pastel colors for a more graceful and flowingly asymmetrical composition. Boucher took these ideas and incorporated them into his paintings of romanticized pastorals, which were landscapes with shepherds and shepherdesses.  Not only did he paint, but he was one of the most well-known artists of the decorative arts in Europe because of his exquisite tapestries and porcelain. Boucher was talented with several mediums and because of his popularity, had many prints distributed on an international level. During this time, artists were not simply creating works for a single patron; rather the artwork was sold to those of the higher middle class established by the industrial revolution.

                Although Francois Boucher was one of the most famous artists of the eighteenth century, he still had critics. Denis Diderot, for example, was a writer who grew tired of Boucher’s pastorals and repetitive color palette, but praised him for having the talent of having such a magical quality to his work.  One painting called Diana Leaving her Bath has such a quality. I find the subject matter of this piece very interesting because of the way he depicted Diana’s story. She is obviously a skilled huntress roaming around in this vast landscape of eerie and dark woods, yet she is so beautiful and idealized. Her glowing skin and luminous presence makes this painting seem to be a snapshot of a real event that was captured in an instant before anyone could see.  I am attracted to the elegance and subtle variations of warm and cool colors (mostly blues and pinks), for which he was notorious for. Typically, I find softer color palettes boring, but I love the way Boucher exaggerates the blues in his shadows and lightens up women’s flesh as if she’s a miracle.

Boucher worked in Italy in 1728 where he was fascinated by Italian Baroque painters.  His return to Paris in 1730 was when he began working with large scale paintings of mythological scenes, one of which he completed in 1742: Diana Leaving her Bath. This piece describes the goddess Diana relaxing after a day’s hunt. The dead birds and rabbit piled adjacent to her bow suggest that she shot them herself. A nymph waits at the goddess’s side to aid her bathing; this shows that Diana was a superior figure. Boucher’s influence by baroque art is evident with his depiction of the dog on the left side of the work. The position of the dog does not give the viewer a pleasant view, in fact it is a little unexpected and indiscrete. Another element of baroque art in this piece is shown with the blue drapery behind Diana. It swoops down underneath her and the viewer’s eye travels down her crossed legs in a rhythmic diagonal. This blue drapery also seems to act as a “curtain” to represent a figure of importance, also seen in baroque art. The work of Francois Boucher is the epitome of Rococo art, however towards the end of the eighteenth century, Neoclassicism cut him out of the picture with  the renewing style of simplicity and harmony.

               

Bibliography:

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/bouc/hd_bouc.htm

http://www.jstor.org/pss/25159852