Vertumnus and Pomona, A French Mythological tapestry, Beauvais workshop, from the series 'Fragments d'Opera', woven from cartoons by François Boucher, under the direction of André-Charlemagne Charron, third quarter 18th century, signed and dated in reverse with F.Boucher, 1757

woven with figures of Pomona and Vertumnus, with cloud bourne cupids above, in a formalised landscape setting; lacking borders, later selvedge

Casimir Périer and Veil Picard Collections
Private Collection, Paris
Thence with present owner

Jules Badin, Tapisseries de Beauvais, Paris, 1909, listing of series.
Dario Boccara, Les Belles Heures de la Tapisserie, 1971, p.200, for illustration of present panel.
George Leland Hunter, Tapestries, Their origin, history and renaissance, New York, 1912, frontispiece; Hunter, Loan Exhibition of Tapestries, Cleveland Museum of Art (Cleveland, 1918) no.37 (Lent by Gimpel and Wildenstein).
Edith Appleton Standen, European Post-Medieval Tapestries and Related Hangings in the Metropolitan Museum, 1985, Vol. II, pp.544-548, for comparable panel

Measurements: 257cm. across the top, 258cm. across the bottom, 325cm. up the left side, 321cm. up the right side. The image in the catalogue is a bit strident and in reality it is more muted in appearance. For example the red is not as overwhelming and the yellow is gentler. There is a wonderful range of colours including pastel colours used in this tapestry. This is a finely woven tapestry. In good overall restored condition. Linen lining. Presently with a cotton sleeve across the top. It is recommended that Velcro should be attached across the top for hanging purposes in the future. Minor repairs in areas, see the area of clouds in top right corner. Some tinting to small repairs. Later machine woven yellow selvedge. It is an interesting historically recorded weaving, and it is a versatile size with balanced composition and colour.
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For comprehensive disucusssion of the series and a comparable weaving of this subject with clearly visible F. Boucher 1757, of narrower proportions (approximately 305cm. high, 206cm. wide) with the dolphin fountain visible on the right of the present weaving not visible, see Edith Appleton Standen, European Post-Medieval Tapestries and Related Hangings in the Metropolitan Museum, 1985, Vol. II, pp.544-548. The present panel is woven with the same orientation of the design and figures, and it is only the signature which is in reverse. 

The subject is considered to have been taken from the 1742 ‘ballet-opera’ Les Eléments, (words by Roy and music by Lalande and Destouches), with the fourth Act: ‘Earth’ relaying the story of Vertumnus and Pomona, with the tapestry depicting the final disguise of Vertumnus as an old lady.  The composition is from Vertumnus and Pomona, by François Boucher, oil on canvas, The Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco (1967-11).

Jules Badin, Tapisseries de Beauvais, Paris, 1909, lists the series of tapestries woven at the Beauvais manufactory between 1728 and 1793, including the ‘Fragments D’Opera’, d’après Boucher, designed as a series of five subjects in 1752, including The Dream of Rinaldo (Renaud endormi), Vertumnus and Pomona (Vertumne et Pomone), Apollo and Isse (called Sommeil d’Issé), Venus and Cupids (Vénus et les Amours), and Castanets (Les Castagnettes). Different panels from the series, rather than full sets, were commissioned between 1752 and 1776. The most complete set woven, of four from this series, was an order from the King for the Contrôller Général, Henri Léonard Bertin in 1762, with borders including the royal coat-of-arms, and the set included a weaving of Vertumnus and Pomona (later in the Groult collection and sold at Galerie Jean Charpentier, Paris, 24 May, 1955 (no.108, illus). The subject of Vertumnus and Pomona is recorded as having been woven five times. Another panel was noted in the Alfred Rothschild and Countess of Carnarvon Collections, and sold at Christie's, London, 2nd May 1935 (no.120, illus), with the complete fountain and watering can, and most of flowerpot on left. Another narrower panel, with half the vase on the left and half the basket of flowers on the right, from the Théodore Reinach Collection in 1921, sold at the Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 29 May 1929 (no.10, illus) and then at Galerie Jean Charpentier, Paris, 25 June 1937 (no. 120, illus).

Importantly Standen, opcit., pg.547, records a weaving of Vertumnus and Pomona, from the Casimir Périer and Veil Picard Collections, later recorded in a private collection in Italy in 1983, (with the vase of flowers on the left and the dolphin fountain on the right), and of notable remark, is that the signature is in reverse, and therefore the present tapestry.