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Source Description
Late in his career, François Boucher adopted a drawing style characterized by strong pen lines and loosely brushed washes. This sheet, which dates from that period, depicts the blind priest Simeon, at left, who was promised that he would see the Messiah before his death. When the Christ child was brought into the temple near him, Simeon regained his sight. Boucher emphasized the miraculous event by showing divine light streaming down onto the priest from the dove above, which represents the Holy Spirit. The drawing is similar to an oil sketch (Louvre, Paris) that Boucher completed during the last year of his life -- one of the very last projects he ever completed.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
107008
label
The Presentation in the Temple
core
obj
dtoType
drawing
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
107008
contentType
drawing
title
The Presentation in the Temple
description
Late in his career, François Boucher adopted a drawing style characterized by strong pen lines and loosely brushed washes. This sheet, which dates from that period, depicts the blind priest Simeon, at left, who was promised that he would see the Messiah before his death. When the Christ child was brought into the temple near him, Simeon regained his sight. Boucher emphasized the miraculous event by showing divine light streaming down onto the priest from the dove above, which represents the Holy Spirit. The drawing is similar to an oil sketch (Louvre, Paris) that Boucher completed during the last year of his life -- one of the very last projects he ever completed.
date
c. 1770
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q79894209
creators
1888
genreSpecific
Drawing
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Sheet: 32.3 x 20 cm (12 11/16 x 7 7/8 in.); Framed: 66 x 50.9 x 6.4 cm (26 x 20 1/16 x 2 1/2 in.)
cul
France, 18th century
accession
1925.1005
Source extras
tec
pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash, and black chalk, heightened with white paint; framing lines in pen and brown ink
tombstone
The Presentation in the Temple, c. 1770. François Boucher (French, 1703–1770). Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash, and black chalk, heightened with white paint; framing lines in pen and brown ink; sheet: 32.3 x 20 cm (12 11/16 x 7 7/8 in.); framed: 66 x 50.9 x 6.4 cm (26 x 20 1/16 x 2 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Leonard C. Hanna Jr., 1925.1005
supportMaterials
description
cream(3) laid paper
collection
DR - French
inscriptions
inscription
verso, center, in graphite: G; lower left, in graphite: Lest R./-oc-.
didYouKnow
This drawing was probably a sketch for an oil painting that Boucher was unable to complete before his death.
citations
citation
<em>Catalogue d'une collection choisie de tableaux originaux et dessins précieux des trois écoles...du cabinet de M. Chariot</em>. Paris: Paillet, 1788.
page_number
Possibly mentioned: no. 128
citation
Heseltine, J[ohn] P[ostle]. <em>Drawings by François Boucher, Jean Honoré Fragonard, and Antoine Watteau in the Collection of J</em>[ohn] <em>P</em>[ostle] <em>H</em>[eseltine]. London: Autotype Company, 1900.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: no. 16
citation
Michel, André. <em>François Boucher</em>. Paris: H. Piazza, 1906.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 45, no. 819
citation
Heseltine, J[ohn] P[ostle] and Lucien Guiraud. <em>Dessins de l'école française du dix-huitième siècle provenant de la collectoin H</em>[eseltine]<em>. </em>Paris: Frazier-Soye, 1913.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: no. 4
citation
<em>The French Eighteenth Century: Drawings Coming from the J.P. Heseltine Collection</em>. Exh. Cat. New York: E. Gimpel & Wildenstein, 1914.
page_number
Mentioned: no. 4
citation
Sizer, Theodore. "Drawings by Boucher and Fragonard." <em>Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art </em>13, no. 1 (January 1926): 5-8.
page_number
Mentioned: pp. 5-7
citation
<em>Eighteenth Century Masterpieces</em>. Exh. Cat. Palm Beach, FL: Society of the Four Arts, 1952.
page_number
Mentioned: no. 16
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook.</em> Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 593
citation
Houghton, Amory and Jacqueline Bouchot Saupique. <em>Les Dessins français dans les collections américaines, de Clouet à Matisse</em>. Paris: Art et Style, 1958.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: n.p.
citation
<em>French Drawings from American Collections: Clouet to Matisse</em>. Exh. Cat. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1959. (also published in French and Dutch)
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: no. 37
citation
Ananoff, Alexandre. <em>L'Oeuvre dessiné de François Boucher (1703-1770): catalogue raisonné</em>. Paris: F. de Nobele, 1966
page_number
Mentioned: p. 175, no. 651
citation
Sérullaz, Maurice. <em>Great Drawings of the Louvre Museum: The French Drawings</em>. New York: George Braziller, 1968.
page_number
Mentioned: under no. 50
citation
<em>François Boucher, gravures et dessins provenant du Cabinet des Dessins et de la Collection Edmond de Rothschild au Musée du Louvre</em>. Exh. Cat. Paris: Musée du Louvre, 1971.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 104
citation
Rosenberg, Pierre. <em>French Master Drawings of the 17th & 18th Centuries in North American Collections</em>. Translated by Catherine Johnston. Exh. Cat. Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 1972.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 138, under no. 14
citation
Slatkin, Regina Shoolman. <em>François Boucher in North American Collections: 100 Drawings</em>. Exh. Cat. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1973.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: no. 99
citation
Ananoff, Alexandre. <em>François Boucher</em>. Lausanne: La Bibliothèque des Arts, 1976.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: p. 311, under no. 686
citation
Ananoff, Alexandre and Daniel Wildenstein. <em>L'opera completa di Boucher</em>. Milan: Rizzoli, 1980.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: p. 143, under no. 724
citation
DeGrazia, Diane, and Carter E. Foster. <em>Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2000.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 3, p. 7, pp. 104-105, 288, no. 38; Reproduced: p. 105
catalogueRaisonne
Michel 819; Ananoff 651
creditline
Gift of Leonard C. Hanna Jr.
updatedAt
2026-05-29 05:45:09.869000
sourceId
107008
dept
Drawings
coll
DR - French
med
pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash, and black chalk, heightened with white paint; framing lines in pen and brown ink
creatorTags
male
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
36e0377632a0434b