Putnam Foundation Collection > French

François Boucher
1703 - 1770
Lovers in a Park, 1758
Oil on canvas, 91 1/2 x 76 3/4 in.

In Boucher's fairylike vision of a lush garden setting, a young couple and their spaniel have stopped to rest while out for a stroll. The man, who is weaving flowers into the hair of his lover, is distracted by the appearance of a milkmaid or shepherdess, who has been gathering flowers of her own. Any potential tension in the encounter is erased by the idealized quality of the scene.

The creamy folds of the seated woman's dress and the richly worked foliage of the surrounding bushes and trees epitomize Boucher's expression of rococo style.

This decorative style of art is associated with the reign of Louis XV. Boucher was also the favorite artist of the king's mistress, Madame de Pompadour, for whom he painted some of his most impressive works.

Philippe de Champaigne
1602-1674
Christ Healing the Blind
ca. 1655-60
Oil on canvas
40-1/4 x 55-7/8 in.

Basing his painting on the parable of Christ healing the blind in Matthew 20:29-34, Champaigne shows Christ pointing his right hand to--and healing--two blind men, kneeling on the far left.

The artist was chiefly known early in his career for his deeply religious paintings and solemn portraits. In his later years, Champaigne painted a number of landscapes--an interest revealed in this work with its emphasis on the landscape setting of the parable. Beyond the grotto shaded by towering trees where Christ stands, a broad, placid river fills the middle distance. A bridge leads to a walled town and to the steep promontory and imposing mountains in the distance.

François Clouet
before 1522-1572
Guy XVII, Comte de Laval
ca. 1540
Oil on oak panel
12-3/4 x 9-5/8 in.

The subject of Clouet's painting is the son of one of the great noble families of France. He wears a dark velvet suit with embroidery that resembles gold chains and a cap with a short ostrich feather. Typical of French court portraits of the mid-sixteenth century, the subject's facial features are precisely recorded with exactitude and without flattery, and he seems withdrawn into a world of his own thoughts. François Clouet was the son of Jean Clouet, the most famous painter in France during the first half of the sixteenth century. François succeeded his father as court painter to François I and, after the king's death, continued to hold the position under the three kings who followed.

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
1796-1875
View of Volterra, 1838
Oil on canvas
62-5/8 x 47 in.

In 1834, on his second trip to Italy, Corot spent a month in the fourteenth-century hill town of Volterra, southwest of Florence. During his stay, he completed at least five small oil sketches of the countryside.

In the years after his return to Paris, he used the sketches to paint two large views of the town. Whereas the sketches depict the distinctive buildings, towers, and fortifications of Volterra, the painting here shows only part of the town and emphasizes the golden light and rugged terrain characteristic of the Tuscan countryside.

The work is more an expression of the artist's recollection of the place than a portrait of a specific site.

Jacques-Louis David
1748-1825
Portrait of Cooper Penrose, 1802
Oil on canvas
51-3/8 x 38-3/8 in.

Cooper Penrose traveled from Ireland to Paris in 1802 to commission David, the most famous painter in Europe, to paint his portrait. Reflecting the artist's mature portrait style, this painting shows the subject in three-quarter-length view, seated before a bare wall. By keeping accouterments to a minimum, David avoids indicating the sitter's rank and lineage.

Penrose, a British-born member of a prominent Quaker family, was a successful businessman and landowner but was criticized by the Society of Friends for his lavish tastes. The commissioning of this spartan portrait may have been intended to combat that criticism.

David brings the sitter down to earth by positioning the head lower on the canvas than is traditional in French portraiture. Attention is drawn to the brilliantly painted head and hands, which form a triangle in the center of the composition.

Jean-Honore Fragonard
1732-1806
Blindman's Buff (Le Colin-Maillard)
ca. 1775-80
Oil on canvas
24-5/8 x 17-3/4 in.

Fragonard worked in the studio of François Boucher, who painted Lovers in a Park. Although he was accepted into the French Academy, he declined to pursue a public career as a history painter. Preferring instead to work for private clients,

Fragonard developed a style that lauded the charm and beauty of the private moments of the French aristocracy. In Blindman's Buff, well-dressed men, women, and children play the familiar game in the kind of picturesque overgrown garden that was popular with the aristocracy. This and similar lighthearted amusements were among Fragonard's favorite subjects, and he may have viewed the games as symbolizing the game of courtship.

Nicolas de Largillierre
1656-1746
Portrait of Barthélemy-Jean-Claude Pupil
1729
Oil on canvas
54-1/2 x 41-7/8 in.

Largillierre, who enjoyed a long and successful career as a portraitist, was sought out early in the eighteenth century by important new clients from the provinces of France. One of them was B.-Jean-Claude Pupil, who received two judicial appointments in Lyon after his marriage in 1722 to Marguerite de Sève, the subject of the companion portrait.

The artist shows Pupil wearing his wig and legal robes and supporting a book whose gilt title has worn away.

Nicolas de Largillierre
1656-1746
Portrait of Marguerite de Sève, Wife of Barthélemy-Jean-Claude Pupil
1729
Oil on canvas
54-1/2 x 41-7/8 in.

Largillierre, who enjoyed a long and successful career as a portraitist, was sought out early in the eighteenth century by important new clients from the provinces of France. One of them was B.-Jean-Claude Pupil, who received two judicial appointments in Lyon after his marriage in 1722 to Marguerite de Sève, the subject of the companion portrait.

His wife wears a costume with an embossed and jeweled bodice that looks made of metal but may be silk mounted on molded buckram, a stiff material. The music she touches with her left hand and the words underneath it are for a drinking song of the kind that sophisticated women sang at an evening gathering at home.

Claude Lorrain
1600-1682
Pastoral Landscape
1646-47
Oil on canvas
40-3/8 x 52-1/4 in.

Claude Lorrain -- born Claude Gellée and called Lorrain after his birthplace in France -- is known for a landscape style that combines classical ideals of beauty and harmony with a sensitive and acute observation of nature. He was particularly fascinated by light. The long shadows and the pink tone of the clouds in this painting indicate that the time of day is evening or early morning.

The work clearly reflects a contemporary description of the artist's methods: "He tried by every means to penetrate nature, lying in the fields before the break of day and until night in order to learn to represent very exactly the red morning-sky, sunrise and sunset and the evening hours."

Claude-Joseph Vernet
1714-1789
A Seaport at Sunset
1749
Oil on canvas
44-7/8 x 64-5/8 in.

Vernet, a native of Avignon, went to Rome in 1734 and over the next decade established himself in Italy as a painter of real and imaginary landscapes based on the local countryside and seacoast.

In this painting, the artist depicts an idealized Mediterranean seaport, rather than a specific location, and uses a variety of features from the region. The lighthouse is from Naples, whereas the mountains behind it are unlike any in the vicinity of Naples. At the far right is the Arch of Constantine, which is from Rome. The lateen-rigged ship on the right is a type common to the eastern Mediterranean. The large warship is firing a salute and the nearby ships fly the Dutch flag, indicating that the painting may have been commissioned by a Dutch client.