Lot Essay
The nervous penwork and the crosshatching indicate an early date in
Boucher's oeuvre. Alastair Laing has kindly confirmed the attribution
and suggests that it may be a first thought for the engraving by
Jacques Huquier, Le petit ménage, P. Jean-Richard, L'Oeuvre
gravé de François Boucher dans la Collection Edmond de
Rothschild, Paris, 1978, no. 1188, illustrated.
The verso of this drawing has a number of sketches for various projects: a pastoral landscape with a cow and sheep, a woman weeping
with a child and two studies for a fountain. The right-hand study is a more detailed section of that on the left, focusing on the decoration of the putti adorning the fountain. Fountains were a favorite subject of Boucher quite early in his career as it allowed him to draw very rococo designs, largely based on Watteau and Meissonier. He made two series of drawings for fountains, engraved by Pierre Aveline and Gabriel Huquier, and published by Huquier in 1736
Boucher's oeuvre. Alastair Laing has kindly confirmed the attribution
and suggests that it may be a first thought for the engraving by
Jacques Huquier, Le petit ménage, P. Jean-Richard, L'Oeuvre
gravé de François Boucher dans la Collection Edmond de
Rothschild, Paris, 1978, no. 1188, illustrated.
The verso of this drawing has a number of sketches for various projects: a pastoral landscape with a cow and sheep, a woman weeping
with a child and two studies for a fountain. The right-hand study is a more detailed section of that on the left, focusing on the decoration of the putti adorning the fountain. Fountains were a favorite subject of Boucher quite early in his career as it allowed him to draw very rococo designs, largely based on Watteau and Meissonier. He made two series of drawings for fountains, engraved by Pierre Aveline and Gabriel Huquier, and published by Huquier in 1736