{
"data": {
"id": 125948,
"accession_number": "1948.181",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Music and Dance and Cupids in Conspiracy , 1740s. Fran\u00e7ois Boucher (French, 1703\u20131770). Oil on canvas; framed: 77.5 x 131.5 x 6 cm (30 1/2 x 51 3/4 x 2 3/8 in.); unframed: 69 x 123 cm (27 3/16 x 48 7/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of the Louis Dudley Beaumont Foundation, 1948.181",
"current_location": "216B French and German",
"title": "Music and Dance and Cupids in Conspiracy ",
"creation_date": "1740s",
"creation_date_earliest": 1740,
"creation_date_latest": 1749,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"France, 18th century"
],
"technique": "oil on canvas",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "European Painting and Sculpture",
"collection": "P - French 18th Century",
"type": "Painting",
"measurements": "Framed: 77.5 x 131.5 x 6 cm (30 1/2 x 51 3/4 x 2 3/8 in.); Unframed: 69 x 123 cm (27 3/16 x 48 7/16 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"framed": {
"height": 0.775,
"width": 1.315,
"depth": 0.06
},
"unframed": {
"height": 0.69,
"width": 1.23
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "Signed lower left: \"f Boucher\"",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "A Voluptuous Taste: French Painting in the Age of Madame de Pompadour. Mus\u00e9e des Beaux-Arts de Tours, Tours, France (October 11, 2008-January 12, 2009); Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR (organizer) (February 7-May 17, 2009).",
"opening_date": "2009-02-07T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "French Painting of the Eighteenth Century, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (December 2-20, 1926).",
"opening_date": "2020-12-02T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "French Art of the Eighteenth Century, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford CT (January 23-February 6, 1929).",
"opening_date": "1929-01-23T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Three French Reigns, Louis XIV, XV, XVI, Royal Northern Hospital, London, 25 Park Lane, (February 21-April 5, 1933).",
"opening_date": "1933-02-21T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "J. Carpenter Gamier, Rookesbury Park, Fareham, England",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "(Sale: Christie's, London, England, July 13, 1895)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "July 13, 1895",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "A. Werthemeyer",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1895-",
"sortorder": 3
},
{
"description": "Baron Gustav Neufeld von Schoeller (?), Vienna, Austria",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "",
"sortorder": 4
},
{
"description": "[Duveen Brothers, New York, NY]",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": 5
},
{
"description": "Commodore and Mrs. Louis Dudley Beaumont, Cap d'Antibes, France",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": 6
},
{
"description": "Louis Dudley Beaumont Foundation, gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "-1948",
"sortorder": 7
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1948-",
"sortorder": 8
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": null,
"description": "Along with Cupids in Conspiracy (1948.181.2), this work is surely part of a series of over-door paintings that would have been installed in a house. However, where the panels were originally installed or who commissioned them remains unknown. They exemplify the fusion of fine arts and decorative arts that was common in elite interior design in 18th-century France. Even though the paintings were part of the wall decoration of the room, the patrons chose Fran\u00e7ois Boucher, a well-known painter of portraits and genre scenes, as well as mythological and religious subjects, to execute them. These two paintings reflect a style that was popular both at court and among other wealthy patrons through much of the eighteenth century: light, charming, pastoral scenes that mix classical elements with pure fantasy. Both of them feature putti, chubby baby characters that add a touch of humor to the images.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60515554"
],
"internet_archive": []
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Christie, Manson & Woods. Catalogue of Important Pictures by Old Masters and of the Early English School: Including Masterpieces of Murillo, Jacob Ruysdael and Weenix, from the Clewer Manor Collection, Also Choice Examples of Watteau, Hobbema & W.V. De Velde the Property of a Nobleman, Also the Family Portraits of the Late Sir John Chandos Reade, Sixth Baronet, Fine Works of Canaletto & Rembrandt, the Property of J. Carpenter Garnier, Esq., the Celebrated Engraved Portrait of Admiral Viscount Nelson, by J. Hoppner, R.A., the Property of the Rt. Hon. Viscound Bridport, and Other Fine Portraits by T. Gainsborough, R.A., Sir J. Reynolds, G. Romney, &C. London: Printed by Wm. Clowes & Sons, Ltd, 1895.",
"page_number": "",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Detroit Institute of Arts. The Fourth Loan Exhibition of Old Masters: French Paintings of the Eighteenth Century, Detroit Institute of Arts, December 2 to 20, 1926. [Detroit]: [Institute of Arts], 1926.",
"page_number": "cat. no. 3",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Wadsworth Atheneum. Loan Exhibition of French Art of the Eighteenth Century: Morgan Memorial, Hartford, January 23, to February 6, 1929. [Hartford]: [Morgan Memorial], 1929.",
"page_number": "cat. no. I",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Maurois, Andre\u0301. Three French Reigns: Louis XIV, XV and XVI. [London]: [publisher not identified], 1933.",
"page_number": "cat. nos. 1 and 117",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Francis, Henry S. \u201cA Gift of the Louis Dudley Beaumont Foundation.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 35, no. 10 (1948).",
"page_number": "pp. 223-4, 228",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25141515"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 488",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1958/page/n89"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 135",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n159"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 135",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n159"
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art. Catalogue of Paintings. Pt. 3. European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: cat. 22, p. 51 - 53",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 177",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n197"
},
{
"citation": "Ananoff, Alexandre, \"The New Boucher Catalogue,\" Burlington Magazine, CXXI (July 1979).",
"page_number": "444 (\"Letters\" section);",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Boucher, Franc\u0327ois, Alexandre Ananoff, and Daniel Wildenstein. L'opera completa di Boucher. Milano: Rizzoli, 1980.",
"page_number": "p. 100, nos. 194 and 195",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Catalogue of Paintings, Part 3: European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982.",
"page_number": "Mentioned p. 51-53; Reproduced: p. 52",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Landau, Ellen G. \u201c\u2018A Fairytale Circumstance\u2019 the Influence of Stage Design on the Work of Fran\u00e7ois Boucher.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 70, no. 9 (1983).",
"page_number": "360-72",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25159834"
},
{
"citation": "Bailey, Colin B. The First Painters of the King: French Royal Taste from Louis XIV to the Revolution. New York, N.Y.: Stair Sainty Matthiesen, 1985.",
"page_number": "p. 128. no. 17",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Hunter-Stiebel, Penelope, Philippe Le Leyzour, Olivier Baumont, Noe\u0301mi Rime, Vincent Lievre-Picard, Olivier Baumont, Franc\u0327ois Bazola, Destouches, and Philibert Cardonne. La Volupte\u0301 Du Gou\u0302t: French Painting in the Age of Madame De Pompadour. Paris: Somogy, 2008.",
"page_number": "cat. no. 2, p. 102-103",
"url": ""
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1948.181",
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"creditline": "Gift of the Louis Dudley Beaumont Foundation",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 125948,
"creators": [
{
"id": 1888,
"description": "Fran\u00e7ois Boucher (French, 1703\u20131770)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": "French Rococo artist who epitomizes the frivolous and elegant court life of France in the mid-18th century. During his early career he was closely associated with Watteau, many of whose paintings he engraved. Boucher was a successful and incredibly prolific artistic who had a major impact on both fine and decorative art of the 18th century. He is particularly noted for having reinvented the genre of the pastoral, creating images of shepherds and shepherdesses as sentimental lovers that was taken up in a variety of medium. Boucher's sketchy manner of painting helped to promote painterliness as an end in itself. This trend dominated French painting until the emergence of Neoclassicism, when the tides of criticism turned against Boucher and his followers.",
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1703",
"death_year": "1770",
"use_in_caption": true,
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],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1948-07-20T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1740,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1740s",
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"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-03-27 00:00:51.676000"
}
}