Gallery
François Boucher (1703 - 1770)
Landscape with a Watermill, 1743
François Boucher painted many imaginative landscapes and this is one of his best. The painting shows a romantic idea of what it would be like to live and work in the countryside since the people depicted do not appear to be working particularly hard. Boucher has created a harmonious composition by balancing the ancient temple in the background with the working mill in the foreground. Similarly, the shape and size of the large tree left of centre is echoed in the cloud formation to the far right. To maintain this harmony, Boucher has also used a muted palette of greens, blues and browns, mixed in a variety of ways to create a range of warm and cool tones.
François Boucher
Boucher was a French painter, draughtsman and etcher, who had great influence over the French fine and decorative arts of the 18th century. He objected to nature as "trop verte et mal eclairé" (too green and badly lit), a thought echoed in Boucher's use of light in his imaginative paintings. Boucher's skills led to numerous commissions from King Louis XV and his mistress, Madame de Pompadour, and from these commissions came an even greater fame.
Activities, discussions and questions
» Gather some landscape studies: in order to make an imaginary
landscape appear realistic, you need to be able to draw or paint the
features of a landscape accurately. Have a look at the landscape around
your school and your home. Fill a page with studies of the things you
can see. This could be different trees, walls, buildings, cloud formations
and anything else you think looks interesting. You can then use these
studies at a later date to create your own imaginary landscape.
» Experiment with colour: try making cool and warm
colours. Mix colours together and make a warm and cool red, blue, yellow,
purple, orange and green. Choose one warm and one cool colour and use
these to paint the same landscape twice - one cool and one warm. Add
white to create paler colours and the complementary colour to your chosen
colour to make darker tones.
» How has Boucher created a sense of depth in the painting?
» Would the painting be as interesting to look at if there weren't
any figures included in it? Why/why not?
» Balance and harmony - which objects in the painting balance
each other to create a harmonious composition?
François Boucher (1703 - 1770)
Landscape with a Watermill, 1743
Material:Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 118.1 cm x 90.8 cm
Place made: France
Accession No: B.M.486
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