François BOUCHER (Paris, 1703 - 1770) - Lot 46

François BOUCHER (Paris, 1703 - 1770) The Mill Oil on canvas 51.3 x 62.3 cm (restorations) Gilded and carved wood frame decorated with shells, flowers and pig tails. François Boucher enjoyed a brilliant career, rewarded by numerous titles including professor, director of the Académie Royale and first painter to the king, and received all the honors a painter could hope for. Until the 1760s, he took on several hundred commissions from his prestigious patrons, including the Marquise de Pompadour and the Duc de Chevreuse, as well as from the royal factories of Beauvais and Les Gobelins, and enthusiastically taught his style to his students at the Académie. Our work comes at the height of this intense activitý. It illustrates the exquisite blend of inspiration between the French country landscape around Beauvais, the still-perceptible influence of Flemish and Dutch painting, and the Italian light that Boucher would rigorously transmit to his pupils. Our painting is an autograph replica of the slightly larger (66 x 84.5 cm) work signed and dated Boucher 1751, in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (inv. RF 1962), which was delivered for Cardinal de Soubise's bedroom at the Hôtel de Rohan, Paris, with its counterpart titled Le Pont. Expert: Alexis BORDES We would like to thank Madame Françoise Joulie for confirming the authenticity of our work, after an in-person examination.