Grieving women with children, study for a Massacre of the Innocents

While Boucher produced numerous paintings and drawings of mythological and profane subject, rare are his devotional works. The artist, however, dealt with religious themes throughout his career. He preferred to paint stories taken from the Bible rather than wonders and miracles, the Passion of Christ, or religious ectasis (F. Joulie, Francois Boucher. Fragments of a world picture, Paris, 2013, pp. 239-240). In the Bible, Boucher found stories with anecdotal details that satisfied the taste of his clientele and he tended to choose episodes with spectacular or dramatic subjects, like the present one. No painting of the Massacre of the Innocents by Boucher is known; however, drawings of this subject attributed to the artist are recorded in several 18th Century sales in France.

Dated to the 1760s, this sheet is drawn with only black chalk and gray wash, showing how Boucher, towards the end of his career, used traditional drawing techniques in free and innovative ways (Joulie, op. cit., p. 137).

Françoise Joulie has confirmed the attribution of the drawing. We are grateful to Laure-Aline Démazure for her help in preparing this note and providing information from the Alastair Laing’s archive. The drawing will be included in the Laing-Démazure catalogue raisonné.