VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buy… Read more

BOUCHER'S LA NOBLE PASTORALE The La Noble Pastorale was the last series supplied by François Boucher (d. 1770) to the Royal Beauvais Tapestry Workshop as a set of six subjects and was woven at least ten times between 1755 and 1778. No sets survive in their entirety.

A FRENCH MYTHOLOGICAL TAPESTRY

CIRCA 1750, BEAUVAIS, AFTER FRANCOIS BOUCHER

Details

A FRENCH MYTHOLOGICAL TAPESTRY
CIRCA 1750, BEAUVAIS, AFTER FRANCOIS BOUCHER
Woven in silk and wool, depicting The Fountain of Love from Les Nobles Pastorales, with various figure groups and animals surrounding a large figural fountain and a watermill beyond, in an open wooded landscape, within a largely rewoven simulated giltwood frame border and a later green outer guard border, re-weaving
11 ft. (335 cm.) high; 17 ft. 5 in. (533 cm.) wide

Provenance

M.E. Cronier, sold in Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, 4 - 5 December 1905, lot 168. Consigned by Mrs S. Whitehouse, Mrs. A. Whitridge and Mrs. W. Aldridge (the late Mrs. C Alexander) to
French & Co. 1943 - 1946.
Mrs. Charles Alexander, sold Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 1 March 1947, lot 161.

Literature

A. Alexandre, 'La Collection E. Cronier', Les Arts, November 1905, pp. 23 and 28.
G. Leland Hunter, The Practical Book of Tapestries, London, 1925, p. 175.
G. Leland Hunter, 'America's Beauvais-Boucher Tapestries' International Studio, November 1926, pp. 27 - 28.
H. Göbel, Die Wandteppiche und ihre Manufakturen in Frankreich Italien Spanien und Portugal, Leipzig, 1928, p. 228.
A.S. Cavallo, Tapestries of Europe and of Colonial Peru in The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1967, vol. I, p. 178.

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.

Lot Essay

Several drawings by Boucher for this subject survive, including for the main lady standing before the fountain, which is signed by him (A. Ananoff, M.B. Wildenstein, François Boucher, Geneva, 1976, vol. II, p. 17, fig. 321/1).

More from THE WILDENSTEIN COLLECTION

View All