3421 - BOUCHER, FRANÇOIS (1703 Paris 1770) *: "Le Moulin"

BOUCHER, FRANÇOIS (1703 Paris 1770) *: "Le Moulin" Oil on canvas, with relining Inscribed on a label 51x62 cm, framed * The hammer price is also subject to VAT. - Provenance: Private collection, Switzerland. Expert opinion: Alexis Bordes, Paris, September 6, 2024. The work offered will be included in the Catalogue raisonné currently in preparation. We thank Françoise Joulie, Musée du Louvre, Paris, for her confirmation of authorship. François Boucher attained the highest honors in France when he was appointed First Court Painter to King Louis XV. He had previously studied under François Lemoyne and, following an extended trip to Italy, became a member of the Royal Academy in 1734. He was known as a protégé of Madame Pompadour, who owned numerous paintings by him. The present work, which is coming up for auction, was created at the height of Boucher’s career. It is a hand-painted reworking of a painting completed as early as 1751, which is now housed in the Louvre in Paris. Boucher created this composition along with a similar landscape composition for the bedroom furnishings of Cardinal de Soubise at the Hôtel de Rohan in Paris. At the center of the scene is a watermill, accompanied by a washerwoman, two children at play, and a fisherman with a dog. The artist skillfully guides the viewer’s gaze in a spiral pattern from the waterwheel outward, allowing various small secondary scenes to unfold on their own. He directed the light diagonally, thereby deliberately illuminating individual trees and sections of the pond, while immersing others in blue-green shadows. The work bears witness to the many international influences that shaped François Boucher. Although rooted in a classical French pictorial tradition, it displays the typical Flemish-Dutch treatment of detail, along with a use of light that the artist had learned in Italy. Auction date: November 6, 2026, 2:00 p.m.