Monday, January 19, 2015

Pink Tapestries

Aurora and Cephalus

Venus at Vulcan's forge

Venus on the waves

François Boucher (1703-1770) remained in high favor with French taste makers throughout his life. The tapestries above were woven posthumously to Boucher's designs at the Gobelins works in the 1770s. Louis XVI presented those shown here (and others) to visiting Russian royalty, and they remained at the Hermitage until the 1930s. During the Great Depression the Soviets put a certain amount of energy into selling off Tsarist art. At that point, the pink Boucher tapestries made their way (through a succession of dealers and tycoons) into the hands of J. Paul Getty, who bequeathed them to his Museum. They remain there to this day, along with the Boucher drawings below.

Reclining musician

Reclining nude

Getty also acquired an earlier set of Boucher designs woven into tapestries at the Beauvais works during the 1740s. Three of these are below, along with a pair of extremely vertical painted panels that passed through Rothschild ownership before ultimately migrating to Los Angeles.

Psyche at the basketmaker's

Bacchus and Ariadne

Abandonment of Psyche

Aurora and Cephalus

Venus on the waves