Drawing of the Month #15
François Boucher (Paris 1703 – 1770 Paris)
The Fountain of Love, c. 1736-1737
Black chalk on paper; framing lines in black ink, 364 x 277 mm, Waddesdon (Rothschild Family), on loan since 2003. Accession number 222.2003m
Juliet Carey, Senior Curator at Waddesdon Manor (National Trust / Rothschild Foundation), Buckinghamshire, has kindly chosen our fifteenth drawing of the month.
The turret at Waddesdon Manor in which our drawings are stored can feel gloomy in the winter, which is when I first encountered this work. Twenty years ago, still new to my job, I was looking through all our Solander boxes of drawings, getting increasingly cold and wishing I could look at them wearing woollen, fingerless gloves. I can still remember the pleasure of finding this mood-changing sheet: the velvety warmth of the chalk, the grace of the figures and the sense of life and growth in the vegetation.
The inscription - FONTAINE / DE LAMOUR - gives the drawing its title and there is water falling through the round opening of the fountain. However, the presence of water is most strongly suggested, implicitly, by the brightness on the face of the youth looking into the basin of the fountain, as the light reflected on the (unseen) surface of the water bounces back up. The youth is presumably seeking some prediction of the future, or fulfilment of his wishes. In the foreground, another young man is a little closer to achieving his desires, declaring his love to a shepherdess, who protests, but only gently. Above them, a pair of stone putti kiss, providing an ironic, infantile gloss on the hopes of the adults below. It usually takes a bit of time for people to notice the figure peering out from the bushes on the left, watching.
François Boucher’s revival of the pastoral genre was one if his most original and influential achievements. His images of shepherds and shepherdesses in moments of amorous leisure (here, the sheep look after themselves while their minders are distracted) reached an enormous market and were translated into tapestry, porcelain, printed and textiles and engravings. A brilliant draughtsman, Boucher had honed his skills early, making copies after drawings by Antoine Watteau, and continued to explore the possibilities of drawing throughout his life, making thousands of working studies as well as highly finished presentation sheets for collectors.
The Fountain of Love demonstrates Boucher’s mastery of black chalk, which is a mineral mined from the earth. Chalk is soft but compact and can be sawed into sticks or broken into pieces. The best chalk produces marks without the artist having to press too hard so that it is powdery but does not crumble. It adheres easily to the paper, whose texture further enriches its effects. Although chalk can be manipulated without any tools, Boucher almost certainly used a porte-crayon (crayon holder) to make this drawing, to keep his hands clean and the marks precise. Boucher pressed harder, with the pointed end of a piece of chalk, to create distinct outlines, particularly in the foreground, in contrast with the lighter gestures that conjure the trees furthest away from the viewer.
Many of Boucher’s works were disseminated through prints and this drawing was engraved by Pierre Aveline (1702?-1760) and published by Huquier in 1738. It was announced in the Mercure de France alongside others after Boucher, including a companion print, La Bonne Aventure, which shares not only the Italianate setting with an overgrown fountain, but also the theme of fortune-telling. One can see in the Waddesdon drawing that Boucher intended it to be interpreted by a printmaker. He delineated everything clearly, without rubbing, so that the engraver could copy each mark with the burin. However, Boucher’s skill with the chalk, allowed him to achieve the earthy softness and unity of surface more often associated with smudging and stumping this most yielding of graphic media. Almost the entire surface of the paper is covered with a network of lines, suggesting the exuberance and multi -directional growth of the vegetation: vertical strokes for the cypresses; short flicks and zigzags for the shrubs arching over the foreground group; long isolated curves for the tendrils in the top right. I particularly love the way Boucher left small patches of bare paper to make the light sparkle through the trees and over the faces, clothes and bodies of the people.
In memory of Alastair Laing (1944-2024), who taught us all so much about Boucher and about drawing. His contribution to the collection and to the curatorial life of Waddesdon Manor is beyond measure.
