拍品专文
The present study was used on two occasions by the artist for works dating from the period around 1740. The figure of a nymph seen from behind appears first in an overdoor of The Education of Cupid (fig. 1) which, according to Bruno Pons, was painted for the hôtel de Mazarin, rue de Varenne, and is now in a private collection, A. Ananoff, op. cit., no. 153, fig. 501. Shortly afterwards Boucher re-used the present drawing for the figure of a nymph seated by a fountain in the large tapestry of the Toilette de Psyché, now in the Quirinal Palace, Rome, A.Ananoff, op.cit, no. 191.6, fig. 603.
Françoise de Mailly, duchesse de Meillaraye, later duchesse de Mazarin, commissioned Boucher to paint in 1737 four overdoors for the hôtel de Mazarin. Of the three eventually delivered two, the Venus and Mercury instructing Cupid and Cupid and Psyche, are now in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the third is the Education of Cupid. By the time of the duchess' death in 1742 the fourth painting was still 'chez le peintre'. It seems the last picture was never delivered. By 1825 the three overdoors were transfered to the hôtel de Broglie and mentioned on the death of la maréchale Lannes, also described in F. Contet, Les Vieux hôtels de Paris, 1910. Bruno Pons noted in an unpublished addendum to the catalogue on the rue de Varenne of 1981 that the recent restoration of the two Los Angeles overdoors has revealed that their original shapes corresponds to that of the four drawings in the National Museum in Stockholm, P. Bjurström, French Drawings, Eighteenth Century, Stockholm, 1982, nos. 848-51 illustrated. These drawings bear inscriptions relating them directly to Boucher's commission for the hôtel de Mazarin. Although their compositions do not follow the ones of the pictures as executed, two drawings treat the same subjects as two of the overdoors.
Later in 1737, on 25 November, the French Crown commissioned five tapestries of the Story of Psyche, one of which is the Toilette de Psyché for which a modello is now in an private collection. The collaboration between Boucher and the Manufacture de Beauvais began in 1734 and ended at the artist's death. The series of the Story of Psyche is regarded as Boucher's masterpiece in terms of tapestry design.
An artist producing cartoons on such a large scale needed to keep his compostions as flexible as possible until the very last stage of the production. The tapestries often had to fit panels of varying dimensions, and take into consideration differing light sources. Thus Boucher initially produced very free modelli which could be changed at a later stage according the requirements of each commissions. It is, therefore, not surprising that the present drawing was used, in reverse, in the tapestry as executed, but was absent in the tapestry modello, A. Ananoff, op. cit., no. 191, fig. 601. Once the general scheme of a tapestry cartoon had been composed, Boucher would turn to an already existing group of figure drawings to provide final details. This practise of composing a picture with already existing studies was already followed by artists such as Watteau. One of Boucher's earliest commissions was, in fact, to engrave for Jean de Julienne the collection of figure studies that Watteau himself used as a repertory in producing his own compositions.
Françoise de Mailly, duchesse de Meillaraye, later duchesse de Mazarin, commissioned Boucher to paint in 1737 four overdoors for the hôtel de Mazarin. Of the three eventually delivered two, the Venus and Mercury instructing Cupid and Cupid and Psyche, are now in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the third is the Education of Cupid. By the time of the duchess' death in 1742 the fourth painting was still 'chez le peintre'. It seems the last picture was never delivered. By 1825 the three overdoors were transfered to the hôtel de Broglie and mentioned on the death of la maréchale Lannes, also described in F. Contet, Les Vieux hôtels de Paris, 1910. Bruno Pons noted in an unpublished addendum to the catalogue on the rue de Varenne of 1981 that the recent restoration of the two Los Angeles overdoors has revealed that their original shapes corresponds to that of the four drawings in the National Museum in Stockholm, P. Bjurström, French Drawings, Eighteenth Century, Stockholm, 1982, nos. 848-51 illustrated. These drawings bear inscriptions relating them directly to Boucher's commission for the hôtel de Mazarin. Although their compositions do not follow the ones of the pictures as executed, two drawings treat the same subjects as two of the overdoors.
Later in 1737, on 25 November, the French Crown commissioned five tapestries of the Story of Psyche, one of which is the Toilette de Psyché for which a modello is now in an private collection. The collaboration between Boucher and the Manufacture de Beauvais began in 1734 and ended at the artist's death. The series of the Story of Psyche is regarded as Boucher's masterpiece in terms of tapestry design.
An artist producing cartoons on such a large scale needed to keep his compostions as flexible as possible until the very last stage of the production. The tapestries often had to fit panels of varying dimensions, and take into consideration differing light sources. Thus Boucher initially produced very free modelli which could be changed at a later stage according the requirements of each commissions. It is, therefore, not surprising that the present drawing was used, in reverse, in the tapestry as executed, but was absent in the tapestry modello, A. Ananoff, op. cit., no. 191, fig. 601. Once the general scheme of a tapestry cartoon had been composed, Boucher would turn to an already existing group of figure drawings to provide final details. This practise of composing a picture with already existing studies was already followed by artists such as Watteau. One of Boucher's earliest commissions was, in fact, to engrave for Jean de Julienne the collection of figure studies that Watteau himself used as a repertory in producing his own compositions.