BOUCHER & CHARDIN: Masters of Modern Manners

BOUCHER & CHARDIN: Masters of Modern Manners

EDITED BY ANNE DULAU    Book Number: 81947    Product format: Unknown

Some 200 years ago William Hunter (1718-1783), founder of the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow, was one of a number of British art collectors to acquire works by his contemporary Jean-Siméon Chardin. Among these, Lady Taking Tea of 1735 has become something of an icon in French art from this period, and makes a fascinating pairing with a near-contemporary painting Woman on a Daybed dated 1743 by François Boucher. This rare University of Glasgow book accompanies and exhibition which examines the relationships between these two works. Both depicted modish women and fashionable interiors showing the rise of a new manner in French genre painting. Both show a contemporary fashion for anything Oriental and address undercurrent themes of social history, including the consumption of tea, a pastime influenced by new trade links with China. The book even includes colour photographs and descriptions of a red stoneware teapot and other chinaware, teacups and saucers. Hogarth's The Western Family of 1738 beautifully illustrates British tea drinking in its social context where a blue and white Oriental porcelain teapot even has a metal repair on the handle. Other examples are shown from his Harlot's Progress and there is an abundance of contemporary colour photos of floors, walls, chimneypieces, furniture, fireplaces, shoes and clothing and more. A fine history capturing social life of the period, way beyond the examination of the two paintings. 144pp in large 9½" x 11" softback, colour.
Published price: $50
Bibliophile price: £10.00