Air: Three Putti with Birds

Air: Three Putti with Birds (1741), in the Victoria and Albert Museum, is a decorative painting from a series representing the four elements, with Air personified by winged cherubs and birds. Such element series were standard components of Rococo decorative programs, their scientific-allegorical content presented in Boucher's characteristically charming visual language. François Boucher, the most celebrated French painter of the mid-eighteenth century and First Painter to Louis XV, produced an enormous output of paintings, tapestry designs, stage sets, and decorative objects that defined the visual culture of the Rococo. His characteristic qualities — warm flesh tones, soft light, the sensuous beauty of fabrics and surfaces, the celebration of the female form in mythological and pastoral settings — served the aristocratic and royal taste of pre-Revolutionary France with a consistency and quality that made him the defining visual voice of the Ancien Régime at its most pleasurable. His influence on the subsequent French tradition, particularly through Fragonard and the decorative arts, made him foundational to French aesthetic culture.

The painting showcases François Boucher's pastel palette, with decorative elegance lending the work its distinctive character. The palette and brushwork are calibrated to serve the subject matter, demonstrating the technical command expected of a work from this period.