4x5 transparency scanned on Hasselblad Flextight X1 by Ed Pollard-2018.

Pastorale: The Vegetable Vendor

Artist François Boucher (French, 1703-1770)

Dateca. 1735

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions95 x 67 in. (241.3 x 170.2 cm)
Overall, Frame: 98 1/2 x 71 3/4 in. (250.2 x 182.2 cm)

ClassificationsEuropean art

Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.

Object number71.504

Terms

Landscape
People
Animals
Vegetables
Romance
Pastoral
Blue
White
Green
Yellow
Red
Orange
Brown
Rococo

Collections

European Art before 1945

On View

On view

DescriptionThis is a large oil on canvas painting. The colors of the palette are rich, bringing together elements of a landscape, still life and figure arrangement. The background is blue sky and clouds. A tree juts out into the center of the canvas forming the top of the pyramid arrangement of figures. A young boy and girl form the base of the pyramid, face each other blushing. He wears a red jacket as deep as his blush, she is pale in blue. Their clothes are the simple garments of a servant girl and trader. A third young girl leans over the donkey and looks down on the other two, resting her head on her hand. The donkey carries a large load in baskets, which includes slaughtered lambs. The foreground depicts a grouping of vegetables and copper pots.

Label TextFrançois Boucher French, 1703–1770 Pastorale: The Vegetable Vendor, ca. 1735 Oil on canvas The subject here seems straightforward: a farm boy presents his produce to a kitchen maid, hoping to make a sale. Yet the scene is coded with symbols that chart a more arousing theme. Eighteenth-century viewers would have seen the parsnips the boy offers to the maid, the bound animals on his donkey, and even the eggs in the basket at left as emblems of lovemaking. This blushing encounter of boy and girl brims with sexual longing, their business exchange symbolizing something far more intense: the triumph of love. Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.504