Page 34 and Page 35, Premier Livre de Figures d'Académies Gravées en Partie par les Professeurs de l’Académie Royale

Francois Bouchers Pages 34-35 from the Premier Livre de Figures dAcadmies Gravées en Partie par les Professeurs de lAcadmie Royale, published in 1737, are etchings of academic figure studies that demonstrate the artists role as both practitioner and promoter of the French academic tradition of drawing from the live model. The Livre dAcadmies was a collaborative publication in which the professors of the Acadmie Royale contributed etchings after their own drawings of posed models, creating a teaching tool that disseminated the principles of academic figure drawing throughout France and beyond. Boucher, who would become the premier peintre to Louis XV and the defining artist of the Rococo style, contributed etchings that combine academic correctness with a sensuous handling of the nude that was characteristic of his entire career. The figures on pages 34 and 35 are rendered in an etching technique that captures the soft modeling and graceful contours of Bouchers chalk drawings, translating the tactile quality of the original studies into a print medium that could be widely distributed. The ivory laid paper, with its warm tone and fibrous texture, provides a sympathetic ground for the etched lines, approximating the warmth of the chalk on toned paper that was the preferred medium for academic figure drawing. The publication date of 1737 places this work at the beginning of Bouchers career, when he was establishing the reputation that would make him the most influential French artist of the mid-18th century.

Bouchers academic figure etchings were instrumental in disseminating the French academic drawing tradition throughout Europe and establishing the Rococo approach to the nude that would dominate French art for three decades. The Livre dAcadmies remains a key document for understanding the pedagogy and practice of 18th-century academic art.

Academic figure etchings by Boucher from the 1737 Livre dAcadmies that combine academic correctness with Rococo sensuousness, demonstrating the artists role in disseminating French academic drawing principles and establishing the elegant approach to the nude that defined mid-18th-century French art.