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A youth half-kneeling, with both arms extended, ca. 1755

Black chalk heightened with white
2018-241
A youth half-kneeling, with both arms extended

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Interpretation

More than any other artist, François Boucher is identified with the French Rococo style, known for elaborate embellishment and extravagance, and associated with the court and aristocracy. Adept in all media from painting to the design of tapestries and porcelain figures, Boucher was a technically brilliant draftsman who reinvented the genre of the pastoral, a form of idealized landscape art typically populated by rustic figures in silk dress shown in scenes of sentimental or even erotic love. Boucher made drawings such as this one as finished works of art in themselves for a growing market of collectors, and as preparatory studies for paintings or as designs for printmakers.

Information

Title
A youth half-kneeling, with both arms extended
Object Number
2018-241
Maker
François Boucher
Medium
Black chalk heightened with white
Dates
ca. 1755
Dimensions
40.6 × 26.7 cm (16 × 10 1/2 in.) frame: 61.9 × 47.9 cm (24 3/8 × 18 7/8 in.)
Credit Line
Bequest of Duane E. Wilder, Class of 1951
Culture
French
Type
Materials

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