This drawing by Boucher (1703–1770) in the Crocker is a compositional study for the artist's painting of the Birth of Venus, a work of the early 1730s which hangs in the dining room of the Rumanian Embassy in Paris. Before being rediscovered in the embassy in the rue Saint Dominique the painting was for many years believed lost. This former hôtel particulier was built by Hippolyte Destailleur in the late nineteenth century for the Comtesse de Béarn, who also owned the painting. The newly redicovered work and its fascinating story were published by Alastair Laing in 1994.(1)
The painting was part of a commission which Boucher received soon after his return from Italy in 1731 for François Derbais.(2) Derbais commissioned a suite of paintings to decorate the billiard room in his hotel in the rue Poissonière. The project seems to have occupied Boucher for nearly three years. The other paintings which were part of the Derbais commission are now in three other collections: two, The Rape of Europa and Mercury Confiding the Infant Bacchus to the Nymphs, are in the Wallace Collection, London, while Venus Asking Vulcan for Arms for Aeneas is in the Louvre, still another, Aurora and Cephalus, is in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nancy.(3)
As can be seen, the Crocker drawing is a work of sudden inspiration, executed rapidly in black chalk heightened with white. In it Boucher has completely worked out all the main compositional elements of the painting. In the light touch of the chalk and the distinctly lithe figure style, it is consistent with other drawings of the early 1730s. As Beverly Schreiber Jacoby has remarked, the Venus is "the mirror image of Dejaneira" in his Nessus and Dejaneira and the drawing exhibits a great deal of youthful bravura and exuberance.(4) In addition to the Crocker drawing Boucher made at least three figure drawings connected with the painting. The study for the central figure of Venus, formerly in the collection of Baron Robert von Hirsch, is now in a private collection.(5) Studies for the two nereids at either side of Venus are also known: the nereid at her left is in the Getty Museum(6) while the nereid on the right is in the British Museum.(7) After laying out the composition in the Crocker drawing, as both Perrin Stein(8) and Christine Giviskos(9) note, Boucher would have made the figure studies of Venus and the two nereids from an elaborately posed studio model, probably the same one for all three figures. These studies were executed in detail in red chalk, heightened with white, on light brown paper.
The final arrangement of the composition follows the Crocker drawing almost exactly. Only a few compositional elements in the drawing are not included in the painting as finally realized. In the painting the shell form to the left of Venus is developed and the goddess is depicted wearing pearls and holding more in her hand as well. The nereid on the left holds also hold pearls in her hand while the other nereid assists Venus with the white drapery she is holding in her raised right hand. The principal figures are supported by a dolphin seen below in the foamy waves of the sea, while a triton looks on from the left. The commission from Derbais was an important one for Boucher and both Laing and Bailey point out that the artist hoped other commissions would come as a result of clients seeing them in Derbais's house.
Cara Denison, in William Breazeale, with Cara Denison, Stacey Sell, and Freyda Spira, A Pioneering Collection: Master Drawings from the Crocker Art Museum, exh. cat. Sacramento and tour, 2010
Notes:
(1) Laing 1994 as in Literature above, no. 103, pp. 71–81 where the painting is shown in reverse.
(2) Georges Brunel, Boucher, New York, 1986, pp. 58–71. Brunel actually found François Derbais's estate inventory of 1743: François Derbais, rue Poissonière, salle de billard, inventaire après décès, 2 Mar. 1743, Archives Nationales, Minutier Central, LIX, p. 230.
(3) repr. in Brunel 1986 as in note 2 above, figs. 21, 22, 29 and 30.
(4) Jacoby 1986 as in Literature above, III.C.1, who convincingly points out the similarity of handling in several other drawings of this period. In addition to the Nessus and Dejaneira (IIIC2) Jacoby also mentions the similarity to his illustrations for Oeuvres de Molière of about the same time. The illustration closest to the Birth of Venus manner seems to me to be the Design for the Prologue de Psyché (vol. VI, p. 107) in the Musée Fabre, Montpellier, repr. Jacoby III.D.24.
(5) Von Hirsch sale, London, Sotheby's, 20-21 June1978, lot 62 , repr.
(6) Goldner 1988 as in Literature above, no. 59, repr.
(7) inv. nos. 84.GB.21 and SL 5223.26 respectively.
(8) Stein 2005 as in Literature above. no. 47, repr.
(9) Breazeale et al. 2008 as in Literature above, no. 40.
Inscriptions: black chalk, lower right, signed: Boucher; verso, black chalk, lower left: Guriel?; verso, graphite, center right: 6/"
Marks: verso, lower left corner: Lugt 2315 (Stiglmeier)
Provenance: Johann Stiglmeier, Straubing, before 1856. Edwin Bryant Crocker, Sacramento, by 1871; gift of his widow Margaret to the Museum, 1885
Literature: William Breazeale, with Cara Denison, Stacey Sell, and Freyda Spira, A Pioneering Collection: Master Drawings from the Crocker Art Museum, exh. cat. Sacramento and tour, 2010, no. 36; William Breazeale, "Old Masters in Old California: the Origins of the Drawings Collection at the Crocker Art Museum," in Master Drawings, vol. XLVI, no. 2, Summer 2008, p. 214; William Breazeale, Susan Anderson, Christine Giviskos, and Christiane Andersson, The Language of the Nude: Four Centuries of Drawing the Human Body, exh. cat. Sacramento, 2008, no. 40; Perrin Stein and Martin Royalton Kisch, French Drawings from the British Museum, Clouet to Seurat, exh. cat. London and New York, 2005, p. 122 under no. 47; Alistair Lang, The Drawings of François Boucher, exh. cat. New York, 2003, p. 27; Lydia Beauvais, Charles le Brun 1619–1680, Inventaire général des dessins, école française, Louvre, Paris, 2000, under no. 1142; Alistair Laing, "La Re-Naissance de Vénus: une oeuvre des débuts de Boucher retrouvée à Paris," Revue de l'Art, no. 103, 1994, pp. 77–81; Jeffrey Ruda, The Art of Drawing, Old Masters from the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California, exh. cat. Flint, 1992, no .18; George R. Goldner with the assistance of Lee Hendrix and Gloria Williams, European Drawings I. Catalogue of the Collection, J. Paul Getty Museum collection catalogues, Malibu, 1988, under no. 59; Beverly Schreiber Jacoby, François Boucher's Early Development as a Draughtsman 1720–1734, New York, 1986, no. III.C; Jeffrey Ruda, The World of Old Master Drawings: A Centennial Exhibition at the Crocker Art Museum, exh. brochure, Sacramento, 1985, p. 6; Denys Sutton, François Boucher, exh. cat. Tokyo and Kunamoto, Tokyo, 1982, no. 91; French Drawings from the E. B. Crocker Collection, exh. cat. Long Beach, 1979, no. 3; Sotheby's London, June 20–21, 1978, under lot 62; Alexandre Ananoff, François Boucher, Lausanne and Paris, no. 180/2; Regina Shoolman Slatkin, François Boucher in North American Collections: 100 Drawings, exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979, p. xvii and no. 54; Seymour Howard et al., Classical Narratives in Old Master Drawings, exh. cat. Sacramento, 1972, no. 20 as follower of Boucher; Master Drawings from Sacramento, exh. cat. Sacramento and tour, 1971, checklist p. 148; Pierre Rosenberg, "Twenty French Drawings in Sacramento," in Master Drawings, vol. VIII, no. 1, Spring 1970, p. 39; Crocker Art Gallery, Catalogue of the Collections, Sacramento, 1964, p. 95 and p.22
