Rural Idyll
1735
François Boucher was the master of making country life look like a fancy dress party for the aristocracy. In this 1735 scene, the 'peasants' are suspiciously clean, wearing silk ribbons and perfect hair while lounging next to cows in a lush, dreamy landscape. It’s the Rococo version of rural life: absolutely no mud or hard labor, just endless leisure and flirting. As the favorite painter of Madame de Pompadour, Boucher turned the gritty reality of farming into a soft fantasy that the French elite loved to hang in their salons.
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