François Boucher Paris 1703 - 1770

Anonymous sale, Paris, Maître Rheims & Laurin, Palais Galliera, June 9, 1964, lot 22;
Anonymous sale, Paris, Maître Rheims & Laurin, Palais Galliera, November 29, 1968, lot 110;
Anonymous sale, Paris, Maître Rheims & Laurin, Palais Galliera, June 19, 1970, lot 17.

Maître Rheims & Laurin, "Advertisement," in The Burlington Magazine, vol. CX, no. 788, November 1968, p. c, reproduced;
A. Ananoff and D. Wildenstein, François Boucher, Paris 1976, vol. I, p. 222, under cat. no. 88, as a copy of a lost original;
A. Laing, "A Catalogue of the Paintings," in François Boucher 1703-1770, exhibition catalogue, New York 1986, p. 139-140, under cat. no. 19, fig. 103 as a possible pendant to "Des Trois choses en ferez-vous une?";
A. Laing, The Drawings of François Boucher, London & New York, 2003, pp. 160-161, no. 58, p. 239, note 58.2;
F. Joulie, Esquisses, Pastels et Dessins de François Boucher
dans les collections privées, Paris 2004, no. 33, p. 76 and note 2.

The "Bird Nesters" is a relatively early work by Boucher, dating to the mid-1730s.  It is similar in theme to a number of compositions of oval format that the artist produced around this time, depicting young (sometimes barely adolescent, as in the present case) couples in rather prosaic pursuits.  These include the "De Trois Choses en Ferez-Vous Une?" (Fondation Ephrussi de Rothschild, Saint-Jean-Cap Ferrat); an Egg Seller (Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford) as well as a set of paintings known only from our engravings by Daullé after Boucher: La Souffleuse de Savon; la Vandangeuse; La Marchande d'Oeufs and Le Marchand d'Oiseaux.  The Art Gallery University of Notre-Dame preserves two drawings in reverse sense for the prints of the latter two.¹

The images are somewhat erotically charged, and it is rather clear that Boucher intended them to be titillating, with the double entendre of the subject matter more clear to the viewer than to the rather naive protagonists of his compositions.  The closest in subject matter to the "Bird Nesters" is the Marchand d'Oiseaux, which depicts a young bird seller putting birds in a cage with his paramour (see fig. 1).  Despite the inscription on the print (which states that the composition was painted by Boucher) no oil painting appears to be extant.  The print includes a small poem meant to elucidate its moral:

Ne laissez point échapper de leurs cages,
Ni ce Berger vif, inconstant,
Ni cet Oiseau jeune et volage:
Vous les perdréz l'un et l'autre à l'instant.²

The theme of the "Bird Nesters" is similar to this print, with the same implied threat to the young girl's virtue and the youth's inconstancy.  At the time of the 1986/87 Boucher exhibition, Alastair Laing suggested that it may once have formed a pendant pair with the "De trois choses en ferez-vous une?", noting that in the two paintings the "protagonists are comparable in type and years, and the two compositions balance, while contrasting an indoor and an outdoor scene."   He has since reconsidered that position, noting that more accurate measurements for the present painting in comparison with the Rothschild picture, and its slightly more round shape, argue against a pairing. 

It is also interesting to note that there are at least two related "studies" for the "Bird Nesters."  One is a pastel of the head of the young woman, executed with great vitality and freshness of color.  It is unclear whether it was conceived of as an independent work of art or was a study for the painting; there are some slight differences in the headdress and parts of the costume.³  But as Laing points out, "the expression and direction of [the girl's] gaze up into the young man's eyes-- remains unchanged"⁴.   Ananoff also published an oil sketch of the head of the young boy (op. cit., p. 222, no. 88, with Galerie Jan de Maere, Brussels, 1996-97).  As Laing points out, this is a somewhat unusual occurrence in Boucher's oeuvre, and not typical of his working method, but he nonetheless still believes it to be autograph.⁵   A period copy, slightly larger in size, was offered for sale by Sotheby's, New York, May 22, 1997, lot 72.  Oblong rectangular copies have been sold: Paris, Palais Galleria, March 7, 1975, lot 12; New York, Christie's East, March 23, 1984, lot 136;  

We are grateful to Alastair Laing who confirms the autograph status of the present painting based on photographs.

1 Ananoff (op. cit., pp. 223-225, nos. 88-90; 92-95) dates all of these to 1734; Laing, however, questions Ananoff's cohesive dating of the group and suggests that the prints would appear to be later in date than the Rothschild canvas (see Laing op. cit. p. 139-140). 

2 Trans: "Never let escape from their cages,
Neither this shepherd, frisky and inconstant,
Nor this Bird young and flighty
You will loose them both in an instant."

3 Françoise Joulie (see Literature), considers this pastel to be a preparatory study for the present composition and as such likely to be the earliest extant pastel by Boucher, dating from circa 1736-37 

4 See Laing, 2003 op. cit. p. 161.

5  In a written communication of 27 March, 2007.