A gallant artist who painted "shameful pictures," whose work was first respected and then mercilessly criticized

François Boucher (1703-1770) was a French artist, a prominent representative of the rococo style - ornate, built on sophisticated bent lines, something reminiscent of a shell. It is from the French term rocaille - shell and got its name. Rococo is not unreasonably called the gloss of the XVIII century, because to decorate houses in this style could only very rich people, noble aristocrats and kings. He frivolous, pretentious, with the finest delicate pastel color transitions, ideally corresponded to the mindset and the concept of beauty of the French aristocracy of the XVIII century. To the gallant age - gallant style. Carriages, wigs, minuets, triangles, rococo, paintings by Boucher - this is the brilliant aristocratic Paris of the XVIII century, about it, and about the work of Francois Boucher - sometimes piquant and frivolous to the extreme and indecent we will talk in this article.

François Boucher. Self-Portrait.

In his work, Boucher was multifaceted - he wrote allegorical scenes, landscapes, portraits of Madame de Pompadour, genre and mythological paintings, and even frivolous "boudoir" paintings - pure erotica. His artwork is cheerful, sensual, elegant, with a kind of color, in which preference is given to gentle shades of pink and blue without any sharp color transitions. But at the same time, thanks to the sharp stroke, interesting composition of his paintings do not seem at all pacifying and luscious - there is in them and dynamics and expression, only peculiar, in the spirit of frivolous rococo.

The Birth of Venus

But, perhaps, only on William Bouguereau at the end of his life, all kinds of art critics were fiercer than on Boucher. As only his artwork was not called: vulgar, feminine, affectation, lecherous, and when Boucher because of old age and vision problems could no longer write the finest color transitions, critics instead of sympathy said: "Boucher rolled down to coloring. Passed the rococo era, passed and glory. However, Boucher is hardly worth complaining about the fate - it was quite favorable to him, just fashion has changed and the requirements for art, but Boucher himself to change and write in a new way did not want and did not want, and why, if in the best of times for him, his paintings were quite in demand, brought him fame and fortune.

However, the artist he was really good and talented, not at all as he was presented indiscriminate bourgeois critics, calling to renounce everything that Boucher wrote on his canvases, and most importantly - from the parasitic way of life, when a few aristocrats and kings reap the fruits of labor of thousands of ordinary ignorant peasants and artisans living in poverty.

Diana's bathing

François was born into a family that was not exactly poor, but far from aristocratic. His father, Nicolas Boucher, invented patterns and ornaments for lace and fabrics, and then decided to trade in works of art. Such an occupation brought him not as much money as the necessary connections, and therefore it was not difficult for him to give already not bad drawing Francois in pupils to the venerable artist Francois Lemoine.

When he was 20 years old, Boucher wrote a painting that has not survived to the present time, for which he was awarded a boarding trip to Italy. But the promised three years wait, and in the case of Boucher all five, and that in Italy, he was able to go only by earning money on a rather tedious and partly humiliating for a real artist to work as an illustrator-craftsman, painting all sorts of porcelain products.

However, at that time, Boucher worked a lot and with engravings written by the founder of the Rococo Antoine Watteau, and they had a great influence on his style, as Watteau, Boucher favored the Rococo. And the long-awaited trip to Rome was crumpled - although he came there Boucher already in the status of a real artist and could count on full familiarization with all works of art and profitable orders, but fell ill with fever and soon returned to Paris.

Well, the success of Boucher expected after writing in 1734 painting "Rinaldo and Armida.

Rinaldo and Armida

In addition to fame, Boucher was awarded the most prestigious at the time for the artist of the title "painter of historical scenes", he entered the European artistic elite, could set a high price for his artwork, and customers could be the king and the highest aristocracy of Paris.

They did not make themselves long to wait - in 1735 Boucher decorates the bedroom of King Louis XV in the Versailles palace. Well, the main money comes from the courtiers - "the painter of the king himself" - what recommendation can be better?

And in 1748 Boucher begins to cooperate with Madame de Pompadour. That easily achieved the king's permission for the artist to live in the Louvre, so that he did not have to spend time on the road to his main place of artwork, and at the same time appointed to the lucrative position of director of the Royal manufactory. By the way, Boucher wrote several portraits of Madame de Pompadour, but to judge on them about her true appearance - a lost cause, Boucher, unlike Valentin Serov to please and embellish the portraits of his customers could masterfully.

Portrait of Madame de Pompadour

And Boucher was constantly surrounded by all sorts of sitters, dancers, ladies of semi-secular, from which he wrote his famous boudoir pictures. And some of them were even by modern standards "on the verge", Boucher masterfully wrote nudes, and the lack of those willing to pose him was not. Perhaps that's why detractors whispered about his depravity and insatiability, but there is no documentary evidence of such rumors, however, and refutation too. But some of the "shameful" pictures are too expertly painted.

White odalisque

However, Boucher was married - his chosen one was a young Marie-Jeanne Buzo, the daughter of a judge. Parents at first did not really approve of such a marriage because of the ignorant origin of Boucher, but then reconciled, and the status of the court painter was a weighty argument.

By the way, it was her Boucher depicted on his canvas "Rinaldo and Armida", and a few more images of "Venus". Yes, it is no coincidence that at the end of Boucher's life, critics said that he wrote mythological subjects only to show nudity.

And also Boucher wrote all sorts of landscapes, which again sharply criticized: "there is not a single blade of grass and a tree, which is calculated in France". Indeed there was not - Boucher became a hostage of classical Italian art and wrote landscapes as it is customary in Italy. It was much later that French Impressionists, such as Claude Monet and Maurice Utrillo, would begin to paint views of their native France and Paris.

Lady puts on the blindfold

But genre scenes at Boucher received wonderfully, especially stand out paintings "Lady puts on a blindfold" and "Breakfast". This is rococo in all its splendor.

Breakfast

But from 1760 the rococo style was recognized as definitively outdated, and Boucher was mercilessly criticized. He even contemplated moving to Russia, where Catherine II would surely have accepted him with open arms, as she was a great admirer of his art and in general, the French masters. But it did not work out - in March 1770, 67-year-old Boucher died of fever, leaving a lot of fine paintings, still serving as a memory of the gallant era, which will never be repeated.

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