Pastoral Landscape with Shepherds

(Jean Pillement)

A perfect example of eighteenth century decorative taste, the exhibited picture shows the strong influence of the pastoral tradition popularised by Boucher in formulating idealised views. Pillement’s travels in Portugal, Italy and the South of France provided him with a number of plein-air drawings which are then included in his vivid reconstructions of the countryside of the Midi and Mediterranean. In Pillement’s hands the palette becomes denser and more expressive, and the coy sentimentality of Madame de Pompadour’s protégé gives way to a straightforward graphic representation, although the artist’s brushstrokes remain free and well defined.