Juno commanding Aeolus to release the Winds

Juno's request of the god Aeolus to release the tempest winds that would sink the Trojan fleet sailing under the command of Aeneas, provides the dramatic opening scene for Virgil's epic tale The Aeneid (1:50-86). Removing a stone from the entrance to a cave, Aeolus frees the winds which pour out in the form of misshapen putti. Until recently, Boucher was known to have painted this subject only once, as part of a suite of large decorations completed in 1769 for Bergeret de Frouville (Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas). However, the present painting -- even if it does not come from Boucher's hand -- seems to reflect the artist's design for an earlier version of the subject, and recently Alastair Laing has discovered an unpublished oil sketch by Boucher in a German collection which corresponds almost exactly in composition and format (though it is somewhat more square) to the present painting (written communication dated 5 January 2000); the German oil sketch appears to date from the 1750s. A number of drawings of the same subject have come to light, dating from the 1750s and 1760s (including a highly finished compositional sheet in the collection of Jeffrey Horvitz and a study for the figure of Aeolus that was offered at Christie's, New York, 28 January 1999, lot 134), but their precise relationships to Boucher's painted compositions remain uncertain.

Although the present painting was not executed by Boucher himself, and is of uncertain date, it appears to reflect a lost original composition, and extensive modern repaints may obscure some of its quality of handling.

We are grateful to Alastair Laing for providing the information that forms the basis of the above entry.