Francois BOUCHER
French 1703-1770
The mysterious basket
1748
oil on canvas
92.7 x 78.9cm
Purchased through The Art Foundation of Victoria
with the assistance of Coles Myer Ltd, Fellow, Mr. Henry Krongold, CBE, and Mrs. Dinah Krongold, Founder Benefactors. and the Westpac Banking Corporation, Founder Benefactor, 1982
E2-1982

Boucher painted seven works based on the play Les Vendanges de Tempe by Charles-Simon Favart. It is the love story of the shepherdess Lisette and the 'Little Shepherd', centred around the trials that their relationship endured before they gained parental consent for their marriage.

The mysterious basket is taken from scene four where the Little Shepherd brings to a sleeping Lisette a basket of flowers which he conveniently uses to hide a letter for her.
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Boucher was influential in rejuvenating the 'pastoral landscape', and he infused his scenes with a degree of sentimentality combined with an accomplished, rich painting technique. These characteristics were taken to an extreme level by those who followed him and led to a backlash against his style of painting and made him an unjust target of criticism.