1st Edition

François Boucher and the Art of Collecting in Eighteenth-Century France

By Jessica Priebe Copyright 2022
270 Pages 30 Color & 52 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

270 Pages 30 Color & 52 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

270 Pages 30 Color & 52 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

While earlier studies have focused predominantly on artist François Boucher’s artistic style and identity, this book presents the first full-length interdisciplinary study of Boucher’s prolific collection of around 13,500 objects including paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings, porcelain, shells, minerals, and other imported curios. It discusses the types of objects he collected, the networks... Read more

Introduction: In pursuit of pleasure Part 1: The artist as agent 1. Modernizing Watteau: Marketing luxury in France and Sweden 2. Boucher and the art of Conchyliomanie Part 2: The artist as collector 3. Trading places: Boucher as a collector of fine art 4. The business of collecting Part 3: The collector as artist 5. A new address: Boucher at the Louvre 6. Boucher’s cabinet of natural history 7. The artist inspired: Representing genius and the art of emulation

Biography

Jessica Priebe is a Lecturer in the Department of Art History and Theory at the National Art School, Australia.

"Priebe has built her book around two exceptional primary source accounts of visits to Boucher’s atelier and residence in the Louvre palace in the last decade of the artist’s life. ...Priebe recognized the inviting window these sources opened and designed her research to piece together a glimpse of aspects of Boucher that had previously been overlooked. Priebe gives us the first scholarly study
of Boucher as a collector of art and naturalia. In the process, she has also placed Boucher in a context different from the usual art historical compartment of royal academician and painter to France’s elite."

--H-France