François Boucher (1703-1770)

Mercury reclining on a cloud, pointing to the sky with his left arm, with subsidiary studies of his head and shoulder

细节

François Boucher (1703-1770)
Mercury reclining on a cloud, pointing to the sky with his left arm, with subsidiary studies of his head and shoulder
red and white chalk on light brown paper, corners made up
336 x 354 mm.

来源

An 18th Century French collector's mount.
with Charles E. Slatkin, New York, 1965.
David Daniels; Sotheby's, London, 25 April 1978, lot 64.

出版

R.S. Slatkin, Review of Ananoff's L'oeuvre dessiné de Boucher in Master Drawings, 1967, V, p. 56 and pl. 48.
F.J.B. Watson, Wallace Collection Catalogues: Pictures and Drawings, London, 1968, p. 40, under P487.
A. Ananoff, François Boucher, Paris, 1976, I, p. 235, no. 105(2). J. Ingamells, The Wallace Collection, Catalogue of Pictures, London, 1989, III, p. 80, under no. P487.

展览

Minneapolis, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and elsewhere, Loan Exhibition Selections from the Drawing Collection of David Daniels, 1968, no. 20.
Washington, National Gallery of Art, and elsewhere, François Boucher in North American Collections: 100 Drawings, 1974, no. 54.
Paris, Galerie Cailleux, 1978, no. 7.

拍品专文

A study for the figure of Mercury in Mercury confiding the infant Bacchus to the nymph of Nysa, now in the Wallace Collection, J. Ingamells, The Wallace Collection, Catalogue of Pictures, III, no. P487. It has been established by George Brunel and Alastair Laing that the picture, dating from the immediate return of the artist from Italy around 1731, had been commissioned by the lawyer François Derbais, for his house in the rue Poissonnière in Paris. It hung with the Rape of Europe in the Billiard Room at Hertford House, one of many paintings by the artist in the house. Mariette stated that Dorbay [Derbais] had furnished his whole house with them, which was perfectly easy for him to do, since Boucher 'not seeking to do anything but make a name for himself at that period, would, I believe, have done them for nothing rather than pass up the opportunity', P.-J. Mariette, Abécédario, ed. P. de Chennevières and A. de Montaiglon, Paris, 1851-60, (reprinted 1966), I, p. 165.
An oil sketch for a whole composition is in a New York collection, A. Ananoff, François Boucher, Lausanne, 1976, no. 105, and a red and white chalk study for the reclining nymph is in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Tours, A. Ananoff, op. cit., no. 150 1. The pose of Mercury is reminiscent of the figure of the same god in a relief by Nicolas Coustou formerly in the Hotel des Douanes in Rouen.