Francois Boucher – a bright representative of the French Rococo. He held a high post under King Louis XV, was “the first artist of the king,” and, being very fashionable, enjoyed the patronage of Madame de Pompadour. In 1734 he became a member of the Paris Academy, and in 1765 – its director.
A special place in the artist’s work was occupied by applied art. He created sketches for tapestries, panels, porcelain utensils, was engaged in the production of theatrical scenery, book illustrations, drawings of fans, wallpapers, clocks, etc. In a word, he was actively engaged in interior design. Being “the first artist of the king,” it was Boucher who determined the style of furniture, dishes, clothes of Louis XV.
Feature of the creative manner of the artist was pretentiousness, excessive refinement, the desire to escape from reality. It was this that determined Bush’s predilection for pastoral paintings that depict the idyllic world of rural shepherds and cowherd boys, and mythological subjects whose heroes were beautiful nymphs and young gods. But in all this was visible contortion. The shepherdesses and nymphs depicted by the artist are all the same Parisians dressed in a shepherd’s outfit or ancient Greek tunic.
The hedonic ideals of Louis XV and his entourage, preaching unrestrained enjoyment of life and frank sensuality, largely determined the manner of the letter to Bush. The artist himself considered himself an apprentice of Antoine Watteau. And indeed, outwardly in the paintings of these artists a lot in common. However, there is a great internal difference between them. Creativity Boucher, especially the late period, is devoid of any deep meaning. The paintings of the artist, executed very masterfully, are deprived of living content. Everywhere there is a touch of refined erotica, some ambiguity. Forms are excessively smoothed and aesthetized for the sake of decorativeness and sophistication.
Typical for painting rococo gentle pastel colors in Bushe are too gentle. The colors he selects, based on how beautiful they are combined with each other. The tone tones used by Boucher are very refined. Many of them got their names in the spirit of “grivoaznoy” stylistics. For example, “the color of the hip of a frightened nymph” or “the color of lost time.” An example of Boucher’s late work is the painting “Jupiter and Callisto”.
One of the artist’s earliest, most successful works, Hercules and Omfala, is kept in the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow. For the plot to write a picture of the ancient Greek myth of Hercules. The ancient hero was held captive by the Lydian queen Omphala, and between them flared up love. Bush did not accidentally chose this particular myth: he was attracted by juicy subjects with a touch of eroticism. The composition of the picture is very simple. In the center are the figures of Hercules and Omphala, in the right lower corner there are two cupids, an invariable attribute of this kind of paintings.
The background is the interior of the chambers of the Lydian queen. The nude bodies of the heroes are written very realistically. In contrast to the artist’s later painting, there is still no noticeable desire to embellish reality and somehow idealize the characters’ images. A gust of passion, drawing bodies to each other; transferred by the artist with great power. The range of colors used by Boucher is very colorful, bright and rich. Juicy colors allow you to feel the health and strength of the lovers of Hercules and Omphala.
This painting is one of the best works of the artist. Boucher also wrote such masterpieces as “Venus, comforting Cupid”, “Landscape in the vicinity of Beauvais”, “Triumph of Venus”, “Pygmalion and Galatea”, etc. The artist’s creativity, especially the work of the early period, made a significant contribution to the development of French culture and the whole world.
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