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François Boucher (Paris 1703-1770)
La Marchande de Fleurs
Circa 1743
Oil on canvas, in a Louis XV giltwood frame
77.5 x 95 cm (30 ½ x 37 ¾ in.)
Red wax seal on back stretcher with Rothschild armorial
Provenance: Baron Alfons de Rothschild, Vienna; Baroness Clarice de Rothschild; Private Collection, New York
(gift of Clarice de Rothschild)
The present painting is the pair to La Marchande d’Oiseaux, published by Alexandre Ananoff (François Boucher,
New York 1976, vol. 1 p.381, no.266 under rubric of 1743) as having been in the collection of Baron Edmond de
Rothschild around 1915. These overdoors may be compared to the two blue monochrome Chinoiserie overdoors
now divided between Little Durnford Manor, Wiltshire, and the Davids Samling, Copenhagen, signed and dated
1742 (both illustrated in Alastair Laing, Francois Boucher, exhibition catalogue, Metropolitan Museum, New York
1986, p.205 fig.145,146.
After studying the painting in the original and in comparison with the Copenhagen overdoor, Alastair Laing
confirmed the attribution to Boucher in a letter dated 13 November 2012. Among the attributes he points out, ‘The
particular character of the rocaille surround is specific to Boucher.’ In addition, ‘the figure of the woman…is
comparable to those in the Recueil de diverses figures étrangers published by Huquier…In terms of handling, the
spewing dragon, in particular, embodies Boucher’s extraordinary facility.’
Boucher is regarded as one of the inventors of the Chinoiserie style in the French rococo. Like many Parisian
connoisseurs in the 1730s he succombed to the fashion for the exotic and began to avidly buy Chinese porcelain,
lacquer and ivories, acquiring a collection of several hundred objects over his lifetime. Many of these were
purchased from the marchand mercier Gersaint, for whom he designed the iconic trade card A la Pagode in 1740,
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published, the first example of what would prove to be a highly prolific collaboration with the engraver
Gabriel
Email [email protected]
Huquier (1695-1772) (see Perrin Stein, ‘Les chinoiseries de Boucher et leurs sources: l’art de l’appropriation’,
Pagodes et dragons, Exotisme et fantaisie dans l’Europe rococo 1720-1770, exhibition catalogue, Musée
Cernuschi, Paris 2007, p.89). Huquier’s ornamental prints based on Boucher’s drawings were of capital
importance in the diffusion of the Chinese taste throughout Europe and influenced design both in painting and in the
applied arts incluidng porcelain, marquetry furniture and textiles.
In addition to engraved designs Boucher regularly incoporated Chinese figures and motifs into his easel paintings
during the 1740s, to such an extent that in 1748 the critic Charles Léoffey de Saint-Yves wrote in Le Mercure of his
concern that ‘l’étude habituelle du goût Chinois, qui paroit être la passion favorite de M. Boucher’ would lead to a
decline in the quality of his painting – ‘Il n’auroient plus la meme douceur, s’il continuoit à dessiner des figures de ce
genre.’ (cited in Laing, p.202). As the Goncourt brothers observed in their L’art du XVIIIe siècle (1881), Boucher
was determined to ‘make China into one of the regions of the rococo’.
La Marchande de Fleurs probably dates from circa 1743, the year after Boucher produced his most ambitious work
in the chinoiserie genre, a set of ten tapestry designs in oil on canvas commissioned for a new series of tapestries
by the Beauvais factory, eight of which were exhibited at the Salon of 1742. The ensemble is now in the Musée des
Beaux-Arts, Besançon (four from the series reproduced in Laing, cat.41-44 p.202-207).
Paris – 42 rue de Varenne – 75007 Paris Tel +33 42 22 18 87 Fax +33 1 45 49 31 15
London – 23 Berkeley Square – London W1J6HE Tel +44 20 7629 0905 Fax +44 20 7495 4511
Email [email protected]