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Nov 14, 2012

The Departure of Jacob

c. 1755

François Boucher

(French, 1703–1770)

France, 18th century

Pen and brown-black ink, brown ink wash, and red chalk wash, with black chalk on cream laid paper

Support: Cream(3) laid paper

Sheet: 34.8 x 23.1 cm (13 11/16 x 9 1/8 in.)

Delia E. Holden and L. E. Holden Funds 1981.58

Location

not on view

Did you know?

The gesture between the couple in this drawing -- in which the man offers the woman a pear -- is seen in several other works by François Boucher.

Description

François Boucher was known for romantic, idealized pastoral scenes and produced relatively few religious works. This drawing, however, is believed to relate to the Old Testament story in which Jacob travels to Canaan with his family. Boucher used a limited palette of brown, red, and black to create dramatic shadows and highlights. The family is seen basking in the dappled sunlight that illuminates the mother and her baby as they rest beneath a palm tree. The sheet may have served as a preparatory study for a similar painting by Boucher that is lost today and known only through a reproductive engraving by the printmaker Elisabeth Cousinet-Lempereur.

Artist biography

François Boucher

French Rococo artist who epitomizes the frivolous and elegant court life of France in the mid-18th century. During his early career he was closely associated with Watteau, many of whose paintings he engraved. Boucher was a successful and incredibly prolific artistic who had a major impact on both fine and decorative art of the 18th century. He is particularly noted for having reinvented the genre of the pastoral, creating images of shepherds and shepherdesses as sentimental lovers that was taken up in a variety of medium. Boucher's sketchy manner of painting helped to promote painterliness as an end in itself. This trend dominated French painting until the emergence of Neoclassicism, when the tides of criticism turned against Boucher and his followers.

Inscriptions

Inscription

ON THREE SEPERATELY APPLIED PIECES OF PAPER (now removed and in departmental file), inscribed in black ink: T[illegible] / Dessin à la[illegible] / Boucher - [illegible] / chez Paulme [illegible] 19[illegible] / [illegible] ; printed in black ink: THOS [S superscript] AGNEW & SONS LTD [TD superscript] / Nº 44133 / LONDON, / 43 OLD BOND STREET / PICCADILLY, W1X 4BA ; printed in black ink: Place de la Borde, Nº 2, près St [t superscript]-Augustin / ALEXANDRE / JOUANEST / DOREUR / Fabricant de bordures dorées / pour tableaux, estampes, / glaces, gouaches et des- / sins, et se charge de / l'encadrement. / A PARIS.

Provenance

(possibly sold, Drouot, Paris, May 3-5, 1858, no. 48, no. 630) ¹

1905

(Marius Paulme [1863-1928; Lugt 1910], Paris) ²

?-?

Mme D., Paris ³

by 1977-1981

(Thomas Agnew & Sons Ltd., London, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH) ⁴

Provenance Footnotes

¹As "Le Pâtre, sa Famille et son Troupeau au repos, beau dessin à l'encre de Chine lavé au bistre."

²According to Agnew's; label from an old backing in CMA files confirms Paulme provenance.

³According to Ananoff/Wildenstein 1976.

⁴Inventory no. 44133 on label.

Citations

Ananoff, Alexandre. François Boucher. Lausanne: La Bibliothèque des Arts, 1976. Mentioned and reproduced: vol. I, pp. 171-172, under no. 34

Master Drawings. London: Thos. Agnew & Sons Ltd., 1977. Mentioned and reproduced: no. 32

"The Year in Review for 1981." Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art (February 1982): 41-80. Mentioned: pp. 41, 80; Reproduced: p. 49

Goldfarb, Hilliard T. "Boucher's Pastoral Scene with Family at Rest and the Image of the Pastoral in Eighteenth-Century France." Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art (March 1984): 82-89. Mentioned and reproduce: pp. 82-89

Laing, Alastair. "Boucher et la pastorale peinte." Revue de l'art 73 (1986): 55-64. Mentioned: p. 61 n. 3

Dessins français des XVIIIe et XIXe siècles du Musée de Picardie. Exh. Cat. Amiens: Musée de Picardie, 1997. Mentioned: p. 50, under no. 1

DeGrazia, Diane, and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2000. Mentioned: p. 10, pp. 102-103, 288, no. 37; Reproduced: p. 103

Exhibition history

Master Drawings. Thos. Agnew & Sons Ltd., London (November 15 - December 22, 1977).

French Prints and Drawings in the Age of the Bourbons, 1589-1792. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 2-May 16, 1982).

The Year in Review for 1981. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 17-March 21, 1982).

Treasures on Paper. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 10-July 24, 1988).

Rococo, Revolution, Restoration. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 11-September 24, 1989).

French Drawings from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 13, 1994-March 12, 1995).

Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002).

Treasures on Paper from the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 9-June 8, 2014).

Elegance and Intrigue: French Society in 18th-century Prints and Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 16-November 6, 2016).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=The Departure of Jacob|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1981.58|author=François Boucher|year=c. 1755|access-date=10 December 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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The Departure of Jacob

The Departure of Jacob

François Boucher

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Description

François Boucher

Inscription

Provenance Footnotes

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