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拍品專文
The two dynamic red chalk nudes comprising lots 52 and 53 are preparatory studies for Boucher’s important oval painting of Venus at the Forge of Vulcan, dated 1747 and exhibited at the Salon of that year. The oil's pendant Venus presenting Aeneas to the gods (or The Apotheosis of Aeneas) is now at the musée Promenade de Marly-le-Roi in Louveciennes (J. Falck, ‘The Apotheosis of Aenaes: a lost Royal Boucher rediscovered’, The Burlington Magazine, December 1977, p. 828). Commissioned in 1746 for the redecorated apartments of the soon to be married Dauphin at Versailles, before the intended destination of the works was changed to Marly for the bedroom of the King Louis XV, they are now at the Louvre, bequeathed by the collector Louis La Caze (1798-1869) (inv. MI 1022 ; A. Ananoff, François Boucher, Lausanne and Paris, 1976, I, no. 302, fig. 872).
A small-scale oil grisaille on card, with certain variations, relates to and is preparatory for the overall composition, and is at the musée du Louvre (inv. 12613; J.-F. Méjanès, F. Joulie, François Boucher: hier et aujourd’hui, exh. cat., Paris, musée du Louvre, 2003–2004, no. 57). A subject to which the artist repeatedly returned, the theme of the Forge of Vulcan occupied François Boucher on several occasions: the enclosed world of the forge provided an opportunity to depict the robust physique of Vulcan and of the bare-chested workmen at their labors, in striking contrast with the delicacy of Venus in the foreground.
This iconography was taken up again in another painted compositional study, of differing design and with a viewpoint, revealing a greater number of figures, and which would serve as the modello for a tapestry produced at the Beauvais manufactory (Paris, musée du Louvre, inv. MI 1025; A. Ananoff, op. cit., II, no. 351, fig. 1032).
These two studies of half-length men, executed in red chalk on light brown paper (lots 52 and 53), are preparatory for the background scene of the 1747 painting, namely the working of metal in Vulcan’s forge. The figure holding his hammer before him is shown in reverse in the painting. A third workman is engaged at the anvil, illuminated by the glow of the flames and for him a further preparatory drawing also exists, in black chalk heightened with white on grey paper, at the musée Sainte-Croix, Poitiers (inv. 255; Ananoff, op. cit., I, no. 302⁄2).
Typical of Boucher’s sustained exploration of the male figure, these two powerful red chalk studies, which have survived in a fine state of preservation, inevitably recall the male nudes, drawn from the live model at the Académie royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, where the artist taught between 1735 and 1752.
This work will be included in the catalogue raisonné of A.Laing and L.-A. Demazure, currently in preparation.
A small-scale oil grisaille on card, with certain variations, relates to and is preparatory for the overall composition, and is at the musée du Louvre (inv. 12613; J.-F. Méjanès, F. Joulie, François Boucher: hier et aujourd’hui, exh. cat., Paris, musée du Louvre, 2003–2004, no. 57). A subject to which the artist repeatedly returned, the theme of the Forge of Vulcan occupied François Boucher on several occasions: the enclosed world of the forge provided an opportunity to depict the robust physique of Vulcan and of the bare-chested workmen at their labors, in striking contrast with the delicacy of Venus in the foreground.
This iconography was taken up again in another painted compositional study, of differing design and with a viewpoint, revealing a greater number of figures, and which would serve as the modello for a tapestry produced at the Beauvais manufactory (Paris, musée du Louvre, inv. MI 1025; A. Ananoff, op. cit., II, no. 351, fig. 1032).
These two studies of half-length men, executed in red chalk on light brown paper (lots 52 and 53), are preparatory for the background scene of the 1747 painting, namely the working of metal in Vulcan’s forge. The figure holding his hammer before him is shown in reverse in the painting. A third workman is engaged at the anvil, illuminated by the glow of the flames and for him a further preparatory drawing also exists, in black chalk heightened with white on grey paper, at the musée Sainte-Croix, Poitiers (inv. 255; Ananoff, op. cit., I, no. 302⁄2).
Typical of Boucher’s sustained exploration of the male figure, these two powerful red chalk studies, which have survived in a fine state of preservation, inevitably recall the male nudes, drawn from the live model at the Académie royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, where the artist taught between 1735 and 1752.
This work will be included in the catalogue raisonné of A.Laing and L.-A. Demazure, currently in preparation.