The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 29, 2024

Music and Dance

Music and Dance

1740s
(French, 1703–1770)
Framed: 77.5 x 131.5 x 6 cm (30 1/2 x 51 3/4 x 2 3/8 in.); Unframed: 69 x 123 cm (27 3/16 x 48 7/16 in.)

Description

Along with Cupids in Conspiracy (1948.181.2), this work is surely part of a series of over-door paintings that would have been installed in a house. However, where the panels were originally installed or who commissioned them remains unknown. They exemplify the fusion of fine arts and decorative arts that was common in elite interior design in 18th-century France. Even though the paintings were part of the wall decoration of the room, the patrons chose François Boucher, a well-known painter of portraits and genre scenes, as well as mythological and religious subjects, to execute them. These two paintings reflect a style that was popular both at court and among other wealthy patrons through much of the eighteenth century: light, charming, pastoral scenes that mix classical elements with pure fantasy. Both of them feature putti, chubby baby characters that add a touch of humor to the images.
  • J. Carpenter Gamier, Rookesbury Park, Fareham, England
    July 13, 1895
    (Sale: Christie's, London, England, July 13, 1895)
    1895-
    A. Werthemeyer
    Baron Gustav Neufeld von Schoeller (?), Vienna, Austria
    [Duveen Brothers, New York, NY]
    Commodore and Mrs. Louis Dudley Beaumont, Cap d'Antibes, France
    -1948
    Louis Dudley Beaumont Foundation, gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1948-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Hunter-Stiebel, Penelope, Philippe Le Leyzour, Olivier Baumont, Noémi Rime, Vincent Lievre-Picard, Olivier Baumont, François Bazola, Destouches, and Philibert Cardonne. La Volupté Du Goût: French Painting in the Age of Madame De Pompadour. Paris: Somogy, 2008. cat. no. 2, p. 102-103
    Detroit Institute of Arts. The Fourth Loan Exhibition of Old Masters: French Paintings of the Eighteenth Century, Detroit Institute of Arts, December 2 to 20, 1926. [Detroit]: [Institute of Arts], 1926.
    Cleveland Museum of Art. Catalogue of Paintings. Pt. 3. European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974. Reproduced: cat. 22A, p. 51 - 53
  • French Painting of the Eighteenth Century, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (December 2-20, 1926).
    A Voluptuous Taste: French Painting in the Age of Madame de Pompadour. Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tours, Tours, France (October 11, 2008-January 12, 2009); Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR (organizer) (February 7-May 17, 2009).
    French Art of the Eighteenth Century, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford CT (January 23-February 6, 1929).
  • {{cite web|title=Music and Dance|url=false|author=François Boucher|year=1740s|access-date=29 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1948.181.1