François Boucher

Private collection.

The following condition report is provided by Henry Gentle who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's: Francois Boucher 'Le Chant' The original canvas is lined and the paint layer is stable and secure. There is a horizontal fracture running the width of the painting approximately 5"up from the bottom edge with associated minor restored paint loss. Under u-v lighting further restored loss can be see in the sky and to the top of the foliage of the tree, to the left hand edge , across the surface and the lower right corner. Some of the more delicate scumbles and glazes ,particularly to delineate the girl's features , have been compromised and there is a lack of sharpness as a result. There is a transparency to some of the paint in the sky and the 'speckled' ground layer is visible. The majority of the painted surface is well preserved and the more textured passages are unaffected by any earlier intervention. Overall, the painting is in a good state of preservation.
"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."

This painting has been identified by Alastair Laing as one of the autograph prototypes for the designs found in the upholstered chairbacks woven by the Manufacture des Gobelins, now in the Huntington Art Gallery, San Marino,¹ and for the series depicting The Arts and Sciences, today in the 'Boucher Room' in The Frick Collection, New York.² This particular figure is reproduced in one of the vertical panels, traditionally supposed to have been painted for an octagonal boudoir in Madame de Pompadour's Château de Crécy, paired with 'La Danse' and surrounded by a decorative cartouche.³ A horizontal version of the present composition, attributed to the studio of Boucher, was sold London, Christie's, 4 February 1977, lot 54.

We are grateful to Alastair Laing for endorsing the attribution to Boucher on the basis of first-hand inspection, and for his help in the cataloguing of this lot.

1. See, for example, C. Bremer-David, in French Art of the Eighteenth Century at The Huntington, S.M. Bennett and C. Sargentson (eds), New Haven and London 2008, pp. 323–30, cat. no. 123, reproduced.
2. Inv. no. 16.1.11; see Paintings in The Frick Collection: French, Italian and Spanish, New York 1968, vol. II, pp. 8–23, cat. nos 16.1.4–16.1.11, reproduced.
3. For further discussion of this series, its dating, and authorship, see A. Laing, 'Madame de Pompadour et Les Enfants de Boucher', in Madame de Pompadour et les arts, exh. cat., Paris 2002, pp. 45–48.