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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.
Page data
- Page
- 1
- Source index
- 0
- Type
- photo
- Media ID
- 36e0377632a0434b
- Size
- unknown
Document data
- ID
- 107008
- Core
- obj
- Type
- drawing
DTO data
{
"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",
"citation": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1925.1005",
"rights": "CC0",
"rightsUri": "CC0",
"language": "en",
"wikidata": [
"Q79894209"
],
"creators": [
1888
],
"genreSpecific": [
"Drawing"
],
"iiifBase": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1925.1005/1925.1005_web.jpg",
"thumbnailUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1925.1005/1925.1005_web.jpg",
"largeImageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1925.1005/1925.1005_web.jpg",
"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"
}
Context sent to Scholar
Document identity
{
"localId": "107008",
"label": "The Presentation in the Temple",
"core": "obj",
"dtoType": "drawing"
}
Document 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",
"citation": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1925.1005",
"rights": "CC0",
"rightsUri": "CC0",
"language": "en",
"wikidata": [
"Q79894209"
],
"creators": [
1888
],
"genreSpecific": [
"Drawing"
],
"iiifBase": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1925.1005/1925.1005_web.jpg",
"thumbnailUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1925.1005/1925.1005_web.jpg",
"largeImageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1925.1005/1925.1005_web.jpg",
"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"
}
Document 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-.\r\n"
}
],
"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",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1958/page/n111"
},
{
"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",
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1925.1005",
"creditline": "Gift of Leonard C. Hanna Jr.",
"updatedAt": "2026-05-29 05:45:09.869000",
"imageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1925.1005/1925.1005_print.jpg",
"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": null,
"image_url": null
}
Page context
{
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"pageIndex": 0,
"type": "photo",
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1925.1005/1925.1005_web.jpg",
"mediaId": "36e0377632a0434b"
}