François Boucher

Edmond Lefebvre de Plinval, Vicomte de Plinval (1805-1895);
His sale, Paris, Bonnefons, 14-15 April 1846, lot 3;
Baroness Lanna, Munich;
Her sale, Berlin, P. Cassirer & H. Helbing, 6 November 1929, lot 56;
Dr. Raoul de Preux, Lausanne;
Thence by descent.

A. Ananoff, François Boucher, Lausanne/Paris 1976, vol. I, p. 246, no. 120, reproduced fig. 442;
A. Ananoff & D. Wildenstein, L'opera completa di Boucher, Milan 1980, p. 94, no. 121.

"The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting has quite an old lining and stretcher, which are firm and secure. The varnish from the same period is darkened. There is one short vertical scratch or possibly a brief tear (under an inch long) in Ishmael’s knee, with a line of darkened old retouching. One other narrow line of dark retouching (about two and a half inches long) runs horizontally along the edge of the rock above the sleeping child and does not appear to have been a tear, but rather a slight scrape perhaps. There are only one or two minor little old retouchings elsewhere: in the brim of Hagar’s hat and in the upper sky to the left of the angel. The strength of the brushwork throughout, and swirl of the drapery, is magnificently intact, even apparently into the darks of the landscape, which are slightly dimmed by the old varnish at present. There are just one or two slightly thin places: at the profile of Hagar and near and below the hand of the angel. Elsewhere throughout the paint is beautifully preserved. This report was not done under laboratory conditions."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Boucher's delight in the handling of paint and his virtuosity in its application in all manner of techniques and sizes is well exemplified by this beautiful and subtle sketch. It is a relatively early work by Boucher, perhaps painted in the early 1730s, shortly after his return to Paris in 1731 following his trip to Italy. Before this date Boucher had painted a good number of Old Testament religious subjects, the most striking of which is probably the large Sacrifice of Gideon from the 1720s now in the Louvre.¹ Afterwards, however, either by choice or more probably from lack of patronage, he renounced any ambition to paint large Old Testament themes and eschewed such subjects in favour of the pastoral subjects for which he is best known. The present sketch is one of the last examples of an Old Testament subject in his work, if not the last.

Boucher made frequent use of monochrome oil sketches, both en grisaille and en camaïeu brun, mostly as preparatory works for larger canvases or tapestries, when he tended to use brown, or for engravings when the greater precision afforded by grey was preferred. The purpose of the present sketch, however, remains unknown. Its confident facture is particularly distinguished by the subtle colour lights: the use of blue tints in the sky and delicate pink blushes in the flesh tones. Another such sketch employing this technique, a Study for a funerary monument, is preserved in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.² This was not the only monochrome sketch by Boucher owned by the Vicomte de Plinval in the 19th century. In his sale in 1846, Ananoff also records an oval canvas of 1769 en grisaille depicting The Rape of Prosperpine, today in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Quimper.³

We are grateful to Alastair Laing for endorsing the attribution to Boucher on the basis of photographs, and for suggesting a date of execution in the early 1730s.

1. Exhibited in New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art; Detroit, Institute of Arts; and Paris, Grand Palais, François Boucher 1703-1770, 1986-87, no. 6.
2. Ananoff & Wildenstin, under Literature, 1980, p. 133, no. 602.
3. Ananoff, under Literature, 1976, vol. II, p. 293, no. 669, reproduced.