A new Boucher for Besançon

1. François Boucher (1703-1770)
The Merit of Any Country, c. 1745
Oil on canvas - 105.5 x 80 cm
Besançon, Musée des Beaux-Arts et d’Archéologie
Photo: Audap & Associés

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12/1/24 - Acquisition - Besançon, Musée des Beaux-Arts et d’Archéologie - All eyes were on the Franche-Comté region at the auction organised by Audap & Associés at Hôtel Drouot on 13 December: its star lot, a seductive Chinese painting (ill. 1) by François Boucher sold for €115,000 under the hammer and was immediately preempted for the benefit of the Besançon institution! Many art lovers had been dreaming of this, as this painting would find an ideal place on the walls of the Musée des Beaux-Arts et d’Archéologie, the jewel in the crown of the City of Besançon, which was well aware of the importance of enriching its collections in this way, and was also supported by the very dynamic Association des Amis des Musées et de la Bibliothèque, whose regular support for highly relevant acquisition projects is to be commended. We thus recall the angels by Simon Vouet (see the news item of 10/11/21) and the large red chalk by Adam Frans van der Meulen (see the news item of 10/2/22) constituting the two most spectacular acquisitions made by Besançon in recent years.

2. The poster for the exhibition "One of the Provinces of Rococo. François Boucher’s dream of China"

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The big affair of the 2019-2020 season, however, was the rich exhibition "Une des provinces du rococo. La Chine rêvée de François Boucher" (see article) where basically the only thing missing was this painting, which had not reappeared since it was sold by Jean-Marc Delvaux in June 2005. As we wrote in our review at the time, Boucher’s chinoiseries had never been so well studied. The erudition of the presentation was a marvellous complement to the charm of the subject (ill. 2), which was served up by some very fine loans from all over the world, and…