François Boucher A capriccio view of a mill and a...
Property from a European Private Collection
François Boucher
Paris 1703–1770
A capriccio view of a mill and a dovecote, with a washerwoman and a girl holding a basket
signed lower left: f. Boucher
oil on canvas, unframed
59.9 x 49 cm.; 23⅝ x 19¼ in.
Condition Report:
The following condition report is provided by Hamish Dewar who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's:
Structural Condition
The canvas has been lined and is securely attached to a keyed wooden stretcher with one
central horizontal cross member. There is a very small stable repair to both the lining and the
original canvas in the upper left as viewed from the reverse. The painting features scattered
networks of raised craquelure, including a concentric circular pattern within the Mill and the
foliage in the lower centre left. These appear stable. The tacking and turnover edges are
covered with brown paper gum tape.
Paint Surface
The paint surface has an even varnish layer which has a discoloured, yellowed appearance.
Inspection under ultraviolet light confirms the discoloured opaque varnish layer which prevents
the ultraviolet light from fully penetrating. Inspection under ultraviolet light also reveals a
small, linear recently applied retouching within the sky in the upper right corresponding to the
repair on the reverse. There are further more historic retouchings which have a faint
fluorescence, including several spots of inpainting within the sky, most notably above the mill
and the foliage in the upper left quadrant; lines of retouching which correspond to the
concentric circular pattern of craquelure within the Mill and the adjacent foliage, and a narrow
horizontal band of retouching below the upper edge pertaining when the painting was on a
previous, smaller support. There may be further retouchings which are obscured by the
opaque varnish layers .
Summary
The painting would therefore appear to be in essentially good and stable condition and should
respond very well to cleaning, restoration and revarnishing.
Catalogue Note:
Datable to between 1743 and 1750, this bucolic view of figures beside a stream with a dovecote on the far bank is an early example of Boucher's supremacy in the depiction of the pastoral landscape – the genre for which the artist would become best known and most highly prized. The scene is suffused with summer sunshine, which catches on the rivulets in the stream in the foreground, and reflects off the still surface of the river itself. The two girls, one washing clothes in the river, a kind of carding brush beside her, the other having collected vegetation in a basket, stand out from the landscape in their brightly coloured dresses, their commonplace activities situated in a timeless idyll.
The composition relates to a painting dating to a similar period, in which the scene is expanded on both sides to comprise another figure looking over the water, a waterwheel, and additional buildings; the group in the foreground also includes a child.1 Such adaptations into different formats are not uncommon within Boucher's œuvre, and may also be found in his drawings.2 Indeed, the dovecote that provides the focus for both versions of the scene was clearly a favoured motif for Boucher around these years, as it reappears in several works, such as the painting recorded in a private collection, London, the composition of which informs the wider version of the present work,3 and a vertical format painting, Le Petit Pêcheur, signed and dated 1743.4 Its earliest incarnation would appear to be in one of the small pendants on copper dating to 1739, in the Kunsthalle, Hamburg.5 The figure of the standing girl with her back to the viewer, here, served as a model for two engravings, by Boucher and by John Ingram.6
We are grateful to Alastair Laing for tentatively endorsing the attribution to Boucher on the basis of first-hand inspection, and for his help in the cataloguing of this lot.
Note on Provenance
This painting was most probably acquired by Richard Seymour-Conway, 4th Marquess of Hertford (1800–1870), one of the greatest collectors of the 19th century, whose collection informs the essential character and makes up the vast majority of paintings and decorative arts at the Wallace Collection, London. Brought up in Paris, Lord Hertford's interest in and predilection for French Rococo art was developed from an early age, and he acquired such works on a grand scale. The present work would undoubtedly have appealed to his taste, and in all likelihood was once among a number of other paintings by Boucher that he owned, some fifteen of which are still in the Wallace Collection today. Richard Wallace (1818–1890), most probably Lord Hertford's illegitimate son, became the marquess' assistant in Paris, and in 1870 inherited his entire collection, along with property in France, England and Ireland. Two years later, in 1872, Wallace lent this painting to an exhibition at the Bethnal Green Branch of the South...
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Property from a European Private Collection
François Boucher
Paris 1703–1770
A capriccio view of a mill and a dovecote, with a washerwoman and a girl holding a basket
signed lower left: f. Boucher
oil on canvas, unframed
59.9 x 49 cm.; 23⅝ x 19¼ in.
Condition Report:
The following condition report is provided by Hamish Dewar who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's:
Structural Condition
The canvas has been lined and is securely attached to a keyed wooden stretcher with one
central horizontal cross member. There is a very small stable repair to both the lining and the
original canvas in the upper left as viewed from the reverse. The painting features scattered
networks of raised craquelure, including a concentric circular pattern within the Mill and the
foliage in the lower centre left. These appear stable. The tacking and turnover edges are
covered with brown paper gum tape.
Paint Surface
The paint surface has an even varnish layer which has a discoloured, yellowed appearance.
Inspection under ultraviolet light confirms the discoloured opaque varnish layer which prevents
the ultraviolet light from fully penetrating. Inspection under ultraviolet light also reveals a
small, linear recently applied retouching within the sky in the upper right corresponding to the
repair on the reverse. There are further more historic retouchings which have a faint
fluorescence, including several spots of inpainting within the sky, most notably above the mill
and the foliage in the upper left quadrant; lines of retouching which correspond to the
concentric circular pattern of craquelure within the Mill and the adjacent foliage, and a narrow
horizontal band of retouching below the upper edge pertaining when the painting was on a
previous, smaller support. There may be further retouchings which are obscured by the
opaque varnish layers .
Summary
The painting would therefore appear to be in essentially good and stable condition and should
respond very well to cleaning, restoration and revarnishing.
Catalogue Note:
Datable to between 1743 and 1750, this bucolic view of figures beside a stream with a dovecote on the far bank is an early example of Boucher's supremacy in the depiction of the pastoral landscape – the genre for which the artist would become best known and most highly prized. The scene is suffused with summer sunshine, which catches on the rivulets in the stream in the foreground, and reflects off the still surface of the river itself. The two girls, one washing clothes in the river, a kind of carding brush beside her, the other having collected vegetation in a basket, stand out from the landscape in their brightly coloured dresses, their commonplace activities situated in a timeless idyll.
The composition relates to a painting dating to a similar period, in which the scene is expanded on both sides to comprise another figure looking over the water, a waterwheel, and additional buildings; the group in the foreground also includes a child.1 Such adaptations into different formats are not uncommon within Boucher's œuvre, and may also be found in his drawings.2 Indeed, the dovecote that provides the focus for both versions of the scene was clearly a favoured motif for Boucher around these years, as it reappears in several works, such as the painting recorded in a private collection, London, the composition of which informs the wider version of the present work,3 and a vertical format painting, Le Petit Pêcheur, signed and dated 1743.4 Its earliest incarnation would appear to be in one of the small pendants on copper dating to 1739, in the Kunsthalle, Hamburg.5 The figure of the standing girl with her back to the viewer, here, served as a model for two engravings, by Boucher and by John Ingram.6
We are grateful to Alastair Laing for tentatively endorsing the attribution to Boucher on the basis of first-hand inspection, and for his help in the cataloguing of this lot.
Note on Provenance
This painting was most probably acquired by Richard Seymour-Conway, 4th Marquess of Hertford (1800–1870), one of the greatest collectors of the 19th century, whose collection informs the essential character and makes up the vast majority of paintings and decorative arts at the Wallace Collection, London. Brought up in Paris, Lord Hertford's interest in and predilection for French Rococo art was developed from an early age, and he acquired such works on a grand scale. The present work would undoubtedly have appealed to his taste, and in all likelihood was once among a number of other paintings by Boucher that he owned, some fifteen of which are still in the Wallace Collection today. Richard Wallace (1818–1890), most probably Lord Hertford's illegitimate son, became the marquess' assistant in Paris, and in 1870 inherited his entire collection, along with property in France, England and Ireland. Two years later, in 1872, Wallace lent this painting to an exhibition at the Bethnal Green Branch of the South...
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