François Boucher (after). 1 of 8 lithographs from a series by Haguental & Fagonde reproducing Boucher's painted panels 'The Arts and Sciences', Paris, c. 1840.

Lithograph

This series of eight lithographs was produced by Haguental & Fagonde after François Boucher's eight painted panels, 'The Arts and Sciences', now in the Frick Collection. Until quite recently the panels were thought to have been commissioned by Mme. de Pompadour for her boudoir/octagonal library in the Château de Crécy, a provenance suggested by the existence and title of these lithographs. This was dismissed by Alastair Laing who argued that the panels date from 1761 at the earliest, by which stage Crécy was in the possession of the duc de Penthièvre. Laing suggests the panels were folding screens painted for the duc and later removed to Sceaux in 1775.

28815D