The Love Bird Catcher, François Boucher

François Boucher (French, 1703–1770) The Love Bird Catcher, c. 1731–33 Oil on canvas Gift of Anita Hecht Trust, 1998 (8915.1) During his prolific career, François Boucher served as First Painter to King Louis XV and his mistress, Madame de Pompadour. Other major responsibilities included directing the Royal Academy of Painting and Sclupture and the Gobelins Manufactory (which made tapestries), as well as serving as the principal designer at the Sèvres porcelain manufactory, all of which indicate that Boucher’s artistic influence reached far beyond painting. The Love Bird Catcher displays aspects of Boucher’s style—a pastel palette, soft lines, playfully amorous subject matter—that became the hallmark of the Rococo in the fine and decorative arts. In this work, as in others, Boucher has paid special attention to texture and surface, from the supple skin and fine hair of the putti to the shimmering satin draperies and mossy grass beneath them.