Oil on panel, 'Three Cupids with Signs of the Zodiac: Scorpio, Sagittarius, Libra', grisaille on red ground, follower of François Boucher, late 18th century-early 19th century

Oil painting on panel, grisaille on red ground, depicting three cupids on clouds.

Purchased, 1857

Historical significance: According to Alastair Laing, this panel was very probably originally from a coach - hence the old and not implausible attribution to John Martin (1789-1854), who trained as a coach painter. Four very similar panel attributed by Pierre Rosenberg to Lucas Auger (1655-1739), were exhibited by the Alan Jacobs Gallery in their Summer Exhibition, 1985, no. 35 (not illus. in the catalogue, since sold).
The iconography clearly derives from Boucher's compositions of putti. This panel depicts allegories of three signs of the Zodiac: (from left to right) Sagittarius, Scorpio and Libra in the guise of putti aloft among clouds.
There are no zodiac subjects in Boucher's oeuvre but he did a series of allegories of the arts including Music and Astrology (see La peinture décorative au XVIIIe siècle, 1912, pl. 5 and 6). This type of subject painted in the grisaille technique particularly suited decorative panels such as coach panel but it also may have been an overdoor from a set of allegorical panels.

Grisaille is a term applied to monochrome painting carried out mostly in shades of grey. The use of the French word can be traced only to 1625, although grisaille paintings were made earlier. The origin of monochrome figure painting is to be found in Italian wall painting such as Giotto's painted the stone-coloured allegories of the Virtues and Vices, conceived as statues in fictive niches on the walls of the nave in the Arena Chapel in Padua (1303-06). Grisaille paintings typically occupied thematically or formally subordinate areas of compositions. In the large fresco programmes of the 16th-18th centuries grisaille helped convey illusionism. For example, in Michelangelo's ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome (1508-12) the grisaille reliefs and caryatids help to thrust the nearby polychrome prophets and sibyls into the beholder's space.

Originally acquired as 'after Boucher, probably by Martin' (1893)

François Boucher (1703-1770) was born in Paris and probably received his first artistic training from his father who was a painter before attending the Académie de France in Rome. He may also have travelled to Naples, Venice and Bologna. Around 1731 Boucher returned to Paris where he rapidly gained the royal favour and interest from the private collectors. He was a very prolific artist and produced a wide range of artworks from pastoral paintings, porcelain and tapestry designs as well as stage designs influencing deeply the new Rococo movement.

This grisaille was probably a decorative painting and may have been a coach panel or an overdoor. It depicts putti aloft among clouds embodying three zodiacal signs: Sagittarius, Scorpio and Libra. The design may derive from Boucher’s compositions of putti but was probably made by a close follower.

4338-1857