Two elegant shepherd scenes en camaieu, oil on canvas, each 76 x 70 cm, framed

Provenance:
coll. Rochaz, Paris;
Soullie & Masson auction, Paris, 11.02.1856, lot 1442;
Count Andrzej (Vandalin-) Mniszech, Paris;
Countess Marie Zichy von Zich and Vasonykeö, b. Countess Demblin, Marquise de Ville (from 1857);
Countess Clara Keglevich de Buzin, b. Countess Zichy von Zich and Vasonykeö, Sao Paulo (1956);
private collection, Berlin.

We are grateful to Mr Alastair Laing, London, for his kind support with the cataloguing of this picture. This pair of pictures from aristocratic ownership is very elegant and charming works in terms of its use of colour, and was produced in the light, frivolous spirit of the French Rococo. With their depiction of feigned naturalness and titillating coquetry, they are good example of the prevailing taste at the court of Queen Marie Antoinette, which manifested itself in architectural form in both of the Trianon Palaces in the park at Versailles. Our pictures are variants of two oval paintings by Boucher executed in 1761 (see A. Ananoff and D. Wildenstein, L’Opera Completa di Boucher, Milano 1980, no. 571, Wallace Collection, London, no. 572, private collection, London).