François Boucher Paris 1703 - 1770

Private Collection, Northern France, from the 19th century until recently.

"The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting has a very old lining, now coming loose evidently from some wrinkles and humps in the surface including a curling line rising across the cheek of Syrinx, although the paint is unaffected. The old stretcher is also quite decrepit, with the canvas itself unattached along the top edge. The right base corner has been replaced diagonally with an insert, and the left base corner has a smaller diagonal damage across the corner while retaining the original corner beyond, possibly where both were folded to fit panelling, and there is a slightly altered line along the base edge with some rubbing. One or two old slanting scrapes to the canvas from behind have caused lines of little fractures in the paint surface: one through Syrinx's lower thigh, with a brief line in her upper leg and one in the river God's shoulder, but these have not been retouched. There is in fact little retouching at all, and the painting appears to have escaped much intervention generally. There is a superficial retouching over a pentiment on the shoulder of Syrinx, some little retouched dents in a brief unfilled line under the stretcher bar above the head of Pan, and a few minor touches along the base. The unleached paint and sure, voluptuous brushwork has many characteristic pentimenti throughout: frequently in the nymph, who appears to have been an afterthought herself to judge by the dark vegetation that can be seen through the flesh painting in places. Reeds are also visible running up through Pan's body, and the drapery has many changes. The protective fingers of the god were added around the right shoulder of Syrinx and the hands are all frequently altered. There is slight thinness in some places, such as in the face of the nymph, in some of the darker final details of Syrinx's face and in her pearls, as well as a in some of the drapery over pentimenti on the right, but the general decisive flow of the brushwork is crisp and strong, especially in the reedy background, the splendid head of the river god and the fine modelling of the bodies. This report was not done under laboratory conditions."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

The subject is probably taken from Ovid's Metamorphoses, 1: 689-713. Syrinx, a nymph of Arcadia, fled the embraces of the god Pan, but found her flight blocked by the river Ladon. Rather than submit to him, she called upon the protection of the river-god and was transformed into reeds. The sound of the wind in these so pleased Pan that he made them into the musical instrument that bears his name.

Hitherto unrecorded, the exact provenance and indeed function of this painting remain unclear. As Françoise Joulie has pointed out, only one preparatory drawing survives: a study in black chalk and wash for the head of Pan, without horns, formerly in the Nicholson Institute, Leek, Staffordshire (Fig. 1). The canvas may originally have been set into panelling or similar boiserie, as the lower corners show clear traces of having originally been shaped. Françoise Joulie has recently suggested (private communication, 20 January 2007) that these écoinçons and the format of the composition demonstrate that it originally served as a dessus de porte or overdoor. Boucher had very recently completed just such a subject, a Baigneuse surprise, perhaps illustrating La Fontaine's fable La Fleuve Scamandre, which was painted in 1742 as an overdoor for Madame de Pompadour, and which is now lost .¹  Madame Joulie accepts this as a fully autograph work by Boucher, entirely consistent with other works from the same period, such as the celebrated Bath of Diana of 1742 or the slightly later Rape of Europa of 1747, both today in the Musée du Louvre, Paris.²  As she observes, there are numerous pentimenti visible in the picture, most notably perhaps around the profile of the head of the river god on the left of the composition, suggesting that Boucher had originally placed him further to the right.  Recent examination by infra-red reflectography, however, which reveals careful preliminary outlining with the point of the brush, does not suggest that the composition has been significantly altered in any way.

Alastair Laing, who has recently inspected the painting in the original, has kindly suggested a different interpretation. He points out that the presence of cusping only on the left hand side of the canvas might suggest that it was once of larger format.  This, and the rather broad handling of the paint (for such a size of canvas) would indicate, in his view, that the painting may have originally formed part of a much larger tapestry cartoon, similar to those painted by Boucher for the Gobelins factory for the series of Les Amours des Dieux, woven at Beauvais from 1750 onwards.³  Such cartoons were, by their very nature, only ever partly autograph, and Mr. Laing likewise believes that parts of this painting would also have been entrusted to assistants. There is, however, no evidence of a Pan and Syrinx having been considered as a subject for Les Amours des Dieux and the early history of this painting can only now be guessed at. A painting of this subject was recorded in the collection of the Marquis de Cypierre by 1845: 'La nymphe Syrinx poursuivie par le dieu Pan, se réfugie dans les roseaux, au milieu d'autres nymphes...' but the presence of only one other nymph in the present work would weigh against such an identification.

 

1  A copy by Boucher's pupil Josef Melling was sold in these Rooms, 26 April 2007, lot 113.
2  A. Ananoff and D. Wildenstein, François Boucher, Paris 1976, vol. I, p. 328, no. 215, and vol. II, p. 49, no. 350, reproduced.
3  Compare, for instance, Boucher's treatment of the sea nymphs in the Neptune and Amymone of 1764 (Ananoff, op. cit., vol. II, p. 161, no. 483).