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拍品专文
This drawing is related to the figure of Aurora in a painting dated 1763 of Aurora and Cephalus by Boucher that was also the basis for an engraving, porcelain decoration and a tapestry by other artists. The project connected with this composition actually began in 1755 with the Marquis de Marigny's proposal to King Louis XV to commission seven paintings that would be woven as tapestries. There were delays with the project, and Boucher completed only two oval paintings, Aurora and Cephalus and its pendant Vertumnus and Pomona, dated 1764. The paintings were acquired by the King and are now in the Louvre (Inv. 2710, 2710bis; Ananoff, 1976, op. cit., pp. 156-8, nos. 481, 482).
Aurora and Cephalus derives from Ovid's Metamorphoses. The present sheet isolates the figures of Aurora and a putto on a group of clouds. A drawing of the entire composition for Aurora and Cephalus but with the figures in reverse to the present sheet and the painting is in the National Gallery of Art, Washington (Inv. 1942.9.992; M. Morgan Grasselli, Renaissance to Revolution. French Drawings from the National Gallery of Art, 1500-1800, exh. cat., Washington, National Gallery of Art, 2009-10, no. 57). The Washington drawing served as the basis for an etching by Augustin de Saint-Aubin. In the 19th Century the composition was used to decorate porcelain and was made into a tapestry at the Gobelins Factory, along with its pendant, Vertumnus and Pomona.
Boucher repeated the composition of a nude woman on a cloud with a putto leaning on her thigh in another compositional drawing dated to circa 1766, Venus at Vulcan's Forge (see B. Jacoby Schreiber, 'Boucher's late brown chalk composition drawings', Master Drawings, XXX, 1992, no. 3, p. 267, fig. 13). The figures are in the same direction as the present sheet.
We are grateful to Alastair Laing for his assistance in cataloguing this drawing.
Aurora and Cephalus derives from Ovid's Metamorphoses. The present sheet isolates the figures of Aurora and a putto on a group of clouds. A drawing of the entire composition for Aurora and Cephalus but with the figures in reverse to the present sheet and the painting is in the National Gallery of Art, Washington (Inv. 1942.9.992; M. Morgan Grasselli, Renaissance to Revolution. French Drawings from the National Gallery of Art, 1500-1800, exh. cat., Washington, National Gallery of Art, 2009-10, no. 57). The Washington drawing served as the basis for an etching by Augustin de Saint-Aubin. In the 19th Century the composition was used to decorate porcelain and was made into a tapestry at the Gobelins Factory, along with its pendant, Vertumnus and Pomona.
Boucher repeated the composition of a nude woman on a cloud with a putto leaning on her thigh in another compositional drawing dated to circa 1766, Venus at Vulcan's Forge (see B. Jacoby Schreiber, 'Boucher's late brown chalk composition drawings', Master Drawings, XXX, 1992, no. 3, p. 267, fig. 13). The figures are in the same direction as the present sheet.
We are grateful to Alastair Laing for his assistance in cataloguing this drawing.