Editing François Boucher (section)

==Painting==
[[File:The secret message, by François Boucher.jpg|thumbnail|left|upright|''The Secret Message'', 1767 ([[Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum]], Braunschweig)]]
Boucher took inspiration from artists such as [[Peter Paul Rubens]] and [[Antoine Watteau]].<ref>{{Cite web|url = http://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/creating-new-europe-1600-1800-galleries/born-on-this-day-francois-boucher|title = Born on this Day: Francois Boucher|date = September 30, 2014|website = Victoria and Albert Museum|last = Hoskin|first = Dawn}}</ref> Boucher's early works celebrate the idyllic and tranquil portrayal of nature and landscape with great elan.<ref>{{Cite journal|jstor = 871018|title = Francois Boucher's Early Development|last1 = Voss|first1 = Hermann|date = March 1953|journal = The Burlington Magazine|last2 = Barea|first2 = Ilse|publisher = Burlington Magazine Publications Ltd.|volume = 95| issue=600 |page = 82}}</ref> However, his art typically forgoes traditional rural innocence to portray scenes with a definitive style of [[eroticism]] as his mythological scenes are passionate and intimately amorous rather than traditionally epic. Boucher's paintings of a flirtatious shepherd and shepherdess in a woodland setting, featured in ''The Enjoyable Lesson'' (''The Flute Players'') of 1748 and ''An Autumn Pastoral'' (''The Grape Eaters'') of 1749, were based upon characters in a 1745 play by Boucher's close friend Charles-Simon Favart. Boucher's characters in those paintings later inspired a pair of figurines created by the Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory, {{Circa|1757}}–66.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Zarucchi|first=Jeanne Morgan|date=2016|title=The Shepherdess' Progress: From Favart to Boucher to Sèvres|journal=Konsthistorisk Tidskrift (Journal of Art History, Stockholm)|volume=85|issue=2|pages=141–158|doi=10.1080/00233609.2016.1142474|s2cid=192925316}}</ref> [[Madame de Pompadour|Marquise de Pompadour]] (mistress of King [[Louis XV of France|Louis XV]]), whose name became synonymous with Rococo art, was a great admirer of his work.<ref name="Hyde 455">{{Cite journal|title = The "Makeup" of the Marquise: Boucher's Portrait of Pompadour at her Toilette|last = Hyde|first = Melissa|date = September 2000|journal = Art Bulletin|doi = 10.2307/3051397|volume = 82|issue = 3|page = 455|jstor = 3051397|issn = 0004-3079}}</ref> Marquise de Pompadour is often referred to as the "godmother of Rococo"<ref name="Hyde 455" /> and Boucher's portraits were central to her self-presentation and cultivation of her image. For instance, Boucher's 'Sketch for a Portrait of Madame de Pompadour', displayed in the Starhemburg room at [[Waddesdon Manor]], acts as a surviving example of the oil preparation prior to the, now lost, portrait. In one hand she holds her hat, in the other she picks up a pearl bracelet with a portrait of the king – symbolising the relationship upon which her status depends.

[[File:Virgin and Child with the Young Saint John the Baptist and Angels MET DP123935.jpg|thumb|''[[Mary, mother of Jesus|Virgin]] and [[Christ Child|Child]] with the Young Saint [[John the Baptist]] and Angels'', 1765 ([[Metropolitan Museum of Art]])]]
Boucher's paintings such as ''The Breakfast'' (1739), a familial scene, show how he was as a master of the [[Genre works|genre]] scene, where he regularly used his own wife and children as models. These intimate family scenes are contrasting to the licentious style seen in his ''[[Odalisque]]'' portraits.

The dark-haired version of the ''Odalisque'' portraits prompted claims by the art critic [[Denis Diderot]] that Boucher was "prostituting his own wife", and the ''[[The Blonde Odalisque|Blonde Odalisque]]'' was a portrait that illustrated the extramarital relationships of the King. Boucher gained lasting notoriety through such private commissions for wealthy collectors and, after Diderot expressed his disapproval, his reputation came under increasing critical attack during the last years of his career.
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