The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 29, 2024

The Presentation in the Temple

The Presentation in the Temple

c. 1770
(French, 1703–1770)
Sheet: 32.3 x 20 cm (12 11/16 x 7 7/8 in.); Framed: 66 x 50.9 x 6.4 cm (26 x 20 1/16 x 2 1/2 in.)
Catalogue raisonné: Michel 819; Ananoff 651
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

This drawing was probably a sketch for an oil painting that Boucher was unable to complete before his death.

Description

Late in his career, François Boucher adopted a drawing style characterized by strong pen lines and loosely brushed washes. This sheet, which dates from that period, depicts the blind priest Simeon, at left, who was promised that he would see the Messiah before his death. When the Christ child was brought into the temple near him, Simeon regained his sight. Boucher emphasized the miraculous event by showing divine light streaming down onto the priest from the dove above, which represents the Holy Spirit. The drawing is similar to an oil sketch (Louvre, Paris) that Boucher completed during the last year of his life -- one of the very last projects he ever completed.
  • ?-1770
    Probably Barthélemy-Augustin Blondel d'Azincourt [1719-1783], Paris
    1770
    (Paris, Cabinet curieux...de M. d'Azincourt, April 18, 1770, no. 61, sold to Chariot)
    1770-1788
    M. Chariot, Paris
    1788
    (possibly Hotel de Bullion, Paris, Collection choisie...du Cabinet de M. Chariot, January 28, 1788, no. 128, sold to Pierre-François Basan)
    1788-?
    Possibly Pierre-François Basan [1723-1797], Paris
    ?-?
    Jan Baptist de Graaf [1742-1804; Lugt 1120], Amsterdam
    ?-1883
    Possibly Eugénie Tripier-LeFranc [1805-1872], Paris
    1883
    (Paris, Tripier-LeFranc sale, June 5-7, 1883, no. 45)
    by 1900-after 1914
    John Postle Heseltine [1843-1929; Lugt 1507], London
    ?-?
    (Richard Owen, Paris)
    ?-1925
    Leonard C. Hanna Jr., Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    1925-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Catalogue d'une collection choisie de tableaux originaux et dessins précieux des trois écoles...du cabinet de M. Chariot. Paris: Paillet, 1788. Possibly mentioned: no. 128
    Heseltine, J[ohn] P[ostle]. Drawings by François Boucher, Jean Honoré Fragonard, and Antoine Watteau in the Collection of J[ohn] P[ostle] H[eseltine]. London: Autotype Company, 1900. Mentioned and reproduced: no. 16
    Michel, André. François Boucher. Paris: H. Piazza, 1906. Mentioned: p. 45, no. 819
    Heseltine, J[ohn] P[ostle] and Lucien Guiraud. Dessins de l'école française du dix-huitième siècle provenant de la collectoin H[eseltine]. Paris: Frazier-Soye, 1913. Mentioned and reproduced: no. 4
    The French Eighteenth Century: Drawings Coming from the J.P. Heseltine Collection. Exh. Cat. New York: E. Gimpel & Wildenstein, 1914. Mentioned: no. 4
    Sizer, Theodore. "Drawings by Boucher and Fragonard." Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 13, no. 1 (January 1926): 5-8. Mentioned: pp. 5-7
    Eighteenth Century Masterpieces. Exh. Cat. Palm Beach, FL: Society of the Four Arts, 1952. Mentioned: no. 16
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 593 archive.org
    Houghton, Amory and Jacqueline Bouchot Saupique. Les Dessins français dans les collections américaines, de Clouet à Matisse. Paris: Art et Style, 1958. Mentioned and reproduced: n.p.
    French Drawings from American Collections: Clouet to Matisse. Exh. Cat. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1959. (also published in French and Dutch) Mentioned and reproduced: no. 37
    Ananoff, Alexandre. L'Oeuvre dessiné de François Boucher (1703-1770): catalogue raisonné. Paris: F. de Nobele, 1966 Mentioned: p. 175, no. 651
    Sérullaz, Maurice. Great Drawings of the Louvre Museum: The French Drawings. New York: George Braziller, 1968. Mentioned: under no. 50
    François Boucher, gravures et dessins provenant du Cabinet des Dessins et de la Collection Edmond de Rothschild au Musée du Louvre. Exh. Cat. Paris: Musée du Louvre, 1971. Mentioned: p. 104
    Rosenberg, Pierre. French Master Drawings of the 17th & 18th Centuries in North American Collections. Translated by Catherine Johnston. Exh. Cat. Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 1972. Mentioned: p. 138, under no. 14
    Slatkin, Regina Shoolman. François Boucher in North American Collections: 100 Drawings. Exh. Cat. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1973. Mentioned and reproduced: no. 99
    Ananoff, Alexandre. François Boucher. Lausanne: La Bibliothèque des Arts, 1976. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 311, under no. 686
    Ananoff, Alexandre and Daniel Wildenstein. L'opera completa di Boucher. Milan: Rizzoli, 1980. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 143, under no. 724
    DeGrazia, Diane, and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2000. Mentioned: p. 3, p. 7, pp. 104-105, 288, no. 38; Reproduced: p. 105
  • The Drawings of François Boucher. Frick Collection, New York, NY (October 24-December 14, 2003).
    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).
    French Drawings from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 13, 1994-March 12, 1995).
    I and Thou. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 21-May 27, 1984).
    Northern European Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 16, 1982-January 9, 1983).
    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).
    18th Century Master Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (October 6-November 22, 1981).
    Seventeenth-, Eighteenth-, and Early Nineteenth-Century Genre and French Prints and Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 31-August 19, 1979).
    François Boucher in North American Collections: 100 Drawings. National Gallery of Art, Landover, MD (organizer) (December 23, 1973-March 15, 1974); The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (April 1-May 20, 1974).
    Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 11-October 21, 1968).
    Prints and Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 6-September 9, 1965).
    Drawings: France, Italy, Netherlands. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 1-March 24, 1965).
    Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 11-September 10, 1963).
    Aspects of Drawing. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 10-April 2, 1961).
    Italian and French Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 13, 1959-February 2, 1960).
    French Drawings from American Collections: Clouet to Matisse. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands (July 31-September 28, 1958); Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, France (October 24, 1958-January 2, 1959); The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (February 3-March 15, 1959).
    Department of Prints and Drawings Opening Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (March 3, 1958-October 11, 1959).
    Eighteenth Century Masterpieces. Society of the Four Arts (organizer) (December 12, 1952-January 4, 1953).
    Drawings from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 17-August 24, 1942).
    Old Master Drawings from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 4-March 26, 1939).
    Art of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 9-December 2, 1934).
    Drawings in the Classic and Romantic Tradition before 1830. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 7, 1932-January 8, 1933).
    The French Eighteenth Century: Drawings Coming From the J. P. Heseltine Collection. E. Gimpel & Wildenstein, New York (March 21 - April 16, 1914).
  • {{cite web|title=The Presentation in the Temple|url=false|author=François Boucher|year=c. 1770|access-date=29 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1925.1005