Arion on the Dolphin

Arion on the Dolphin from 1748 at the Princeton Museum shows Boucher painting the mythological musician rescued by a dolphin. His mythological subjects combine classical learning with decorative elegance. Boucher worked rapidly in oil on canvas with a warm fluid technique exploiting the Rococo fashion for softly blended color and sensuous surface. Appointed Premier Peintre du Roi in 1765, he embodied French artistic taste for a generation, though his influence waned sharply under the Neoclass...

The mythological scene captures the rescue with Rococo grace. Boucher's handling of the marine setting creates a scene of decorative beauty.