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Due to required maintenance, some galleries and artwork may be off view. Learn more
Currently not on view
One of a set of three tapestries for the Hôtel de Soubise, Paris, woven at the royal tapestry manufactory, Beauvais, France, under the direction of Jean-Baptiste Oudry and Nicolas Besnier (directors 1734 to 1753).
Shortly after a visit to Italy, François Boucher was hired by the Beauvais manufactory to design tapestries. Boucher created the compositions called the "Italian Fêtes" as his first commission. Combining Italian scenic elements, genre subjects influenced by Dutch art, and elegant figure arrangements indebted to the paintings of Antoine Watteau (French, 1684–1721), Boucher created a theatrical vision of country pursuits, called the pastorale, that remained popular long into the eighteenth century. This unique, unusually large tapestry belongs to the first weaving of the Italian Fêtes, commissioned to decorate the audience chamber in the townhouse (hôtel) of the Prince de Rohan-Soubise (now the French National Archives).
Currently not on view
Titles: | Tapestry showing Scenes from the Italian Fêtes |
Date: | 1736 |
Artists: | Designed by François Boucher (French, 1703–1770) Woven at the Beauvais tapestry manufactory, France (1664–present) |
Medium: | Wool and silk |
Dimensions: | 12 feet 6 inches x 25 feet 3 inches (381 x 769.6 cm) |
Classification: | Textiles |
Credit Line: | Gift of Mrs. Dorothea Barney Harding in memory of her husband, J. Horace Harding, 1929 |
Accession Number: | 1929-57-1 |
Geography: | Made in Beauvais, France, Europe |
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Currently not on view