Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00011008About the Artwork
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.
Inscriptions
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) 1905: (Marius Paulme [1863-1928; Lugt 1910], Paris) ?-?: Mme D., Paris by 1977-1981: (Thomas Agnew & Sons Ltd., London, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH)
Exhibition history
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).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- François Boucher (French, 1703–1770)
- Date
- c. 1755
- Medium
- Pen and brown-black ink, brown ink wash, and red chalk wash, with black chalk on cream laid paper
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 34.8 x 23.1 cm (13 11/16 x 9 1/8 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- Delia E. Holden and L. E. Holden Funds
- Accession no.
- 1981.58
More by François Boucher in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00011008
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