Allegory of Painting
François Boucher·1765
Historical Context
Allegory of Painting at the National Gallery of Art in Washington (1765) was made during Boucher's final years, when he was directing both the Gobelins tapestry manufactory and the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture as Premier Peintre du Roi — simultaneously the most official painter in France and the leader of the school his critics were beginning to condemn. The allegorical figure of Painting, with palette and brushes, allowed Boucher to reflect on his own professional identity and legacy at a moment when that legacy was being questioned. The National Gallery's French collection provides an important American venue for understanding eighteenth-century French art, with this Boucher alongside works by Watteau, Fragonard, and Chardin that document the full range of French Rococo painting. As an allegory of the art Boucher had practiced for forty years, this painting carries autobiographical weight alongside its decorative function.
Technical Analysis
The allegorical figure is posed with characteristic Rococo elegance, surrounded by the tools of the painter's art. Boucher's palette remains luminous and refined, with the painting implements rendered with a self-referential precision.
Look Closer
- ◆A winged putto at the left holds a palette and brushes — Painting itself personified as a plump, cheerful child rather than a solemn allegory.
- ◆Another putto sketches on a canvas in the background, observed by a companion — the allegory extends into the workshop behind the main figure.
- ◆Boucher's characteristic soft pinks appear in the drapery, the flesh, and even in the petals of the flower garlands — colour as decorative unifier.
- ◆Scattered art-making tools — compass, chalk, drawing board — are arranged on the ground with the same care as objects in a still life.
- ◆The figure of Painting wears a wreath of laurel rather than the crown of Fame, suggesting artistic virtue over celebrity.
Provenance
Possibly Maximilian III Joseph, Elector of Bavaria [1745-1777]. Traditionally said to have been brought into France by the early 19th century by Général de Saint-Maurice. M. Maillet du Boullay, Paris; (his sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 22 January 1870, no. 2); M. Féral. Gustave Rothan, Paris, by 1874;[1] (his sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 29-31 May 1890, no. 123); Fréret. Adèle, 4th duchesse de Dino [née Adèle Livingston Sampson, 1841-1912; married first to Frederick W. Stevens], Paris, by 1907; probably by inheritance to her daughter, Countess Mabel Stevens Orlowski [married 1891 to Count Mieczyslaw Orlowski (1865-1929)];[2] (Wildenstein & Co., Inc., Paris, New York, and London); sold 1942 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[3] gift 1946 to NGA. [1] The early provenance of this painting and NGA 1946.7.2 is based on tradition rather than documentary evidence, and derives from Paul Mantz, "La Galerie de M. Rothan," _Gazette des Beaux-Arts_ (1873): 442, who believed the pair had been painted for the Elector of Bavaria, Maximilian III Joseph. They were then supposedly returned to France in the early nineteenth century by General de Saint-Maurice, who, according to André Michel, _François Boucher_, Paris, n.d.[1906]: 51, kept them for some sixty years before selling them to Maillet du Boullay. As Alastair Laing has pointed out, however, Saint-Maurice never served in Bavaria and died in 1796 (letter of 20 April 1997 to Richard Rand). Nor do any references to the paintings appear in the state archives of Bavaria; see Colin Eisler, _Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian_, Oxford, 1977: 318, who offered the possibility that they were commissioned by Joseph von Dufresne, a courtier of the Elector who had a large collection of French pictures (see also correspondence in NGA curatorial files). Mantz writes that Rothan acquired the pair of paintings in 1870, probably at Maillet du Boullay's sale; Rothan certainly owned them by 1874, when he lent them to an exhibition in Paris. [2] The Wildenstein prospectus for the pair of paintings listed the last three owners as Mme. Livingston-Sampson, Duchesse de Dino, and Comte Orllowski [_sic_]. Research for the Gallery's systematic catalogue of 15th-18th century French paintings determined that the first two names were the same person, and that the Count was her son-in-law. See NGA curatorial files for the prospectus and documentation of the family history. [3] See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/196.
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