Unknown

Chasseur Fortune, Engraving, Van Falenz / Le Bas, Hunter, Decorative Piece

1745

Portrait of the daughter of Francois Boucher, Marie-Emilie Baudouin, holding a basket of flowers. Pastel on Parchment. The work is related to an oval portrait painting...

A voluptuous woman lies prone on a divan, bearing her backside and turning her head flirtatiously to the viewer, though averting her eyes slightly, as if to maintain a coy demeanor. Surrounded by lush fabrics of deep blues, the creamy tones of her skin and dressing gown are thrown in sharp contrast, making the figure glow luminously. The whole painting is ordered by folds - of flesh, of fabric, of cushions, of the rug - inviting the viewer's eye to look closely across the topography of the canvas. One of Boucher's cabinet paintings (that is, paintings made for private collectors rather than official exhibition at the Salon), the open eroticism of this work invites a voyeuristic gaze. Although it was created for a private audience, it was later displayed at the Salon of 1767, where the critic Denis Diderot found it shocking and lascivious. Nonetheless, Boucher would later paint another iteration of this reclining pose, this time using Marie-Louise O'Murphy, a favorite mistress of King Louis XV, as his model, suggesting that the provocative composition was a stock figure for Boucher's private commissions. "The Brunette Odalisque" (French: L'Odalisque or l'Odalisque brune) is a painting of c. 1745 by François Boucher, now in the Louvre in Paris. He later produced two other works in the odalisque genre, both known as "The Blonde Odalisque". The present painting is another version of Bouchers painting which differs in minor details. The quality of the paint is very fine and the whole technique and style allows a dating to c. 1750. As Boucher's Painting was very famous there were several copies and versions which were made by his studio. The present painting can be attributed to the close circle of Boucher. The Painting is framed in a golden frame which was built in the Rococo style in c. 1990. Both the title of Boucher's painting and the objects found in the interior fix the subject as an odalisque, a concubine within the harem of the Ottoman sultan. The sumptuous textiles and exotic, decorative objects suggest early traces of Orientalism, although the figure appears European. Odalisque paintings...

After a copper engraving (46 x 34 cm) by Gilles Rousselet after Van Dyck, ca. 1640 Paris. Oil on cardboard, 44 x 35 cm Trompe-l'oeils are pictures whose depicted objects are painte...

Portrait of Johann Theodor of Bavaria (1703-1763) by Joseph Vivien Johann Theodor of Bavaria (* September 3, 1703 in Munich; † January 27, 1763 in Lièg...

This is a rare 18th Century hand-colored copperplate engraving entitled "Ciconia Nigra" (Black Stork) by Johann Leonhard Frisch is plate 197 fro...

This a rare 18th century hand-colored large folio-sized copperplate engraving entitled "Platalea leucorodia" (Spoonbill) by Cornelius Nozeman in volume II of his publication 'Nederlandsche Vogelen', engraved by Christiaan Sepp or his son Jan Christiaan Sepp, published in Amsterdam in 1770. This engraving depicts a Platalea leucorodia Spoonbill, a large bird that lives mainly in Europe, Asia and Africa. It commonly migrates long distances on thermal air currents from the colder Northern European climates to Sub-Saharan Africa in the winter, sometimes as far long as Finland to South Africa. The Asian black stork...

This is a rare 18th Century hand-colored large folio-sized copperplate engraving entitled "Anas Crecca" (Eurasian Teal) by Cornelius Nozeman in volume II of his publication 'Nederlan...

This is a rare 18th Century hand-colored large folio-sized copperplate engraving entitled "Ardea Ciconia" (White Stork) by Cornelius Nozeman in volume II of his publication 'Nederlan...