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Lot Essay
The earliest history of this charming depiction of two of the nymphs of Diana resting after the hunt is unknown, but the painting must have been executed as an overdoor decoration. The appealing mix of mythological and pastoral modes--typical of Boucher's production in the 1740s--the intertwined poses of the two figures, and their placement in a verdant, forest landscape, essentially repeats a composition first developed by the artist in a painting that is signed and dated 1745 and today in the Wallace Collection, London. The Wallace painting, generally known as La toilette pastorale serves to represent 'Spring' in a suite of four allegories of the Seasons that were engraved by Duflos in 1751; the set also includes Bacchus and Erigone ('Autumn') in the Wallace Collection; Diana's Nymphs Reposing from the hunt ('Summer') in the Musée Cognacq-Jay in Paris; and The Exchange of Confidences ('Winter') in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
La toilette pastorale is more generally Arcadian, and less specifically Ovidian, than the present composition, which Boucher reinvented with more explicit allusions to the ancient story of Diana, Roman goddess of the hunt, and her maidens. Both paintings depict a loosely clad young woman ornamenting with flowers the hair of her companion, but the Wallace painting includes two naked putti at their feet; a faithful dog on the lower left, and a pink shepherdess's hat lying on the grass beside them, portraying the principal figures more as shepherdesses from the ancient pastoral poetry of Anacreon or Longinus, or the contemporary comic operas of Charles-Simon Favart (1710-1792), than denizens of a mythical realm. Their costumes have the opulent theatricality of opera versions of simple country dress, for example. In the present painting, however, Boucher specifically invokes the woodland environs of the Goddess of the Moon and Hunt: prominently placed are two quivers full of arrows and a discarded bow which allude to the nymphs' role in Diana's hunt, and the dead game which replace the putti of the Wallace canvas are clearly meant to represent the trophies of the day. Furthermore, the young women adorn their feet with buskins, the classical footwear closely associated with the goddess and her followers.
The present painting is authentically signed and fully dated 1748, and a recent cleaning confirms that it is an autograph work, at least substantially, as Alastair Laing has noted; he commended "the landscape, in particular...[as] being exceptionally good" (in correspondence, 11 November 2012). In addition to the voluptuously realized nymphs--one of whom gives a suggestive if skeptical flash of her upturned eyes--Boucher has lavished his incomparable painterly attention on the placid and sun-dappled landscape, the acres of colorful silk, satin and lace that envelop the women, and the superbly realized and closely observed still life of game.
We are grateful to Alastair Laing, who examined the painting in photographs, for confirming the attribution to Boucher and Studio, and for assisting in the preparation of this entry.
La toilette pastorale is more generally Arcadian, and less specifically Ovidian, than the present composition, which Boucher reinvented with more explicit allusions to the ancient story of Diana, Roman goddess of the hunt, and her maidens. Both paintings depict a loosely clad young woman ornamenting with flowers the hair of her companion, but the Wallace painting includes two naked putti at their feet; a faithful dog on the lower left, and a pink shepherdess's hat lying on the grass beside them, portraying the principal figures more as shepherdesses from the ancient pastoral poetry of Anacreon or Longinus, or the contemporary comic operas of Charles-Simon Favart (1710-1792), than denizens of a mythical realm. Their costumes have the opulent theatricality of opera versions of simple country dress, for example. In the present painting, however, Boucher specifically invokes the woodland environs of the Goddess of the Moon and Hunt: prominently placed are two quivers full of arrows and a discarded bow which allude to the nymphs' role in Diana's hunt, and the dead game which replace the putti of the Wallace canvas are clearly meant to represent the trophies of the day. Furthermore, the young women adorn their feet with buskins, the classical footwear closely associated with the goddess and her followers.
The present painting is authentically signed and fully dated 1748, and a recent cleaning confirms that it is an autograph work, at least substantially, as Alastair Laing has noted; he commended "the landscape, in particular...[as] being exceptionally good" (in correspondence, 11 November 2012). In addition to the voluptuously realized nymphs--one of whom gives a suggestive if skeptical flash of her upturned eyes--Boucher has lavished his incomparable painterly attention on the placid and sun-dappled landscape, the acres of colorful silk, satin and lace that envelop the women, and the superbly realized and closely observed still life of game.
We are grateful to Alastair Laing, who examined the painting in photographs, for confirming the attribution to Boucher and Studio, and for assisting in the preparation of this entry.