Boucher's Four Seasons

This new volume in the Frick Diptych series features an illuminating essay by Frick deputy director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator Xavier F. Salomon paired with a images of a new work created for the occasion by Flora Yukhnovich, along with a short text by the artist. François Boucher (1703–1770) made the four paintings known as the Four Seasons in 1755 for Madame De Pompadour, King Louis XV’s long-term official mistress. Their original location is unknown, but their unusual shape suggests that they were used as overdoors, no doubt in one of Pompadour’s many properties in France. In place of the labors that traditionally illustrate the theme of the four seasons, Boucher depicts delightful amorous encounters in joyous colors. In Spring, a youth, set in an enchanting pastoral setting, adorns his lover’s hair with flowers. A group of voluptuous bathing nudes represents Summer. In Autumn, a young man offers a bunch of grapes to his fashionable beloved. Perhaps the most beguiling of all is Winter, which reflects the eighteenth-century European fascination with Russia. A Tartar in pseudo-Russian dress pushes the heroine on an elaborate sleigh. This combination of luxury and seduction-all treated in a fanciful, even humorous manner-is typical of Boucher. Accompanying the Boucher paintings are images of Flora Yuknovich’s contribution, an extraordinary cycle of paintings inspired by Boucher’s Four Seasons, to be displayed at the Frick, in a space on the first floor, occupied between 1935 and 2020 by the Boucher Room. AUTHORS: Xavier F. Salomon is deputy director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator, The Frick Collection, NY. Flora Yukhnovich is an artist who lives and works in London. She is best known for her contemporary interpretation of the Rococo style. SELLING POINTS: . New volume in the best selling Frick Diptych Series that began with Holbein’s Sir Thomas More by Hilary Mantel. . Volume 17 focuses on four exquisite works painted in the 1750s for Madame De Pompadour, King Louis XV’s long-term official mistress by the celebrated Rococo artist François Boucher. . Features a contribution by acclaimed artist Flora Yukhnovich. . Other examples of François Boucher’s works can be found in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; National Gallery of Art, Washington DC; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Harvard Art Museums; and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 38 colour illustrations

Author Biography

Xavier F. Salomon is director of the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum and the former deputy director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator of The Frick Collection.

Flora Yukhnovich is an artist who lives and works in London. She is best known for her contemporary interpretation of the Rococo style.