Paesaggio nei pressi di Beauvais

Francois Boucher is remembered for pink-cheeked goddesses and court decoration, so a plain country landscape like this one can look like a detour. It is not really one. Around 1740 Boucher was moving toward the Beauvais tapestry works, north of Paris, which he would soon direct, and scenes like this fed straight into that trade. A watermill, a rickety bridge, a few figures resting by the water, the ingredients are rural, and yet the whole thing is arranged like a set for a pastoral opera, the near bank serving as a stage. He is said to have based it on real country near Beauvais, but Boucher rarely let a real place stay ordinary. The picture later travelled to Russia and now hangs in the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg.