Boucher: The Love Letter

François Boucher: The Love Letter
oil on canvas, 1750
Washington DC National Gallery of Art
(http://www.nga.gov/fcgi-bin/timage_f?object=46027&image=8634&c=)
no copyright infringement intended

It was commissioned by Madame de Pompadour for her chateau at Bellevue. The scene is a pastoral idyll. The young shepherdesses wear fine silks, and a contemporary audience would understand an erotic promise in the display of pink toes. Diderot, disdainful of the frivolity of Boucher's scenes, complained, Shall I never be rid of these damned pastorals? Yet the encyclopedist, who was an influential critic, also appreciated the brilliance of Boucher's painting, which captures the luminous colors of shells, butterflies, and polished stones—objects the artist collected so he could copy their fragile iridescence.

(NGA)

(Washington DC National Gallery of Art)

(Diderot)

(Old Masters)