François BOUCHER (Paris 1703-1770) Lot n° 17

Study for Saint John the Baptist, reprise of the leg Black stone and white highlights on beige paper On the reverse, The Adoration of the Shepherds, partial back print 45 x 30.5 cm Provenance: Anonymous sale, Paris, Tajan, May 24, 2017, no. 60, reproduced. Our drawing is a study for the figure of St. John the Baptist in the painting St. John the Baptist Preaching in the Desert. The work was painted between 1761 and 1764 for the cathedral of Versailles (see A. Ananoff, François Boucher, tome 2, Lausanne, 1976, no. 562, reproduced). Boucher had not been asked for the commission, and his project was probably accepted through the intermediary of the Marquise de Pompadour (see the catalog of the Boucher exhibition, Paris, Grand-Palais 1986, pp. 303-304). The work on the reverse side of our study is a proof of a drawing for The Nativity-Light of the World in the Morgan Library, which Alastair Laing dates to ca. 1761-1762 (see the catalog of the exhibition Drawings of François Boucher, New York, The Frick Collection, 2003, no. 80, reproduced). We thank Mr. Alastair Laing for confirming the attribution of this drawing and for the information contained in this notice.