A wooden shelter in picturesque decay by a river

Landscapes were important components in Boucher’s painting and the artist produced also pure landscape drawings, although these are less common than his figure studies. As scholars have pointed out, in his landscapes Boucher invented his own ideal version of the French countryside rather than depicting what he saw in the outdoors (A. Laing, The Drawings of François Boucher, exhib. cat., New York, The Frick Collection, and Fort Worth, Kimbell Art Museum, 2003, p. 219). Rustic structures, such as the wooden shelter in this drawing, appear to have been imitated from Dutch 17th Century paintings, which Boucher greatly admired. A similar drawing in black chalk, also inspired by Northern artists, was recently on the art market (Millon, Paris, 28 March 2019, lot 137).

We are grateful to Alastair Laing for his assistance in cataloguing this drawing and for confirming the attribution on the basis of a photograph.