The Flute Lesson

Vincennes Manufactory

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Works of art by the French artist François Boucher (1703–1770), who held the prestigious title of first painter to the king, served as a highly popular source of inspiration for artists working in a variety of media in the middle decades of the eighteenth century. Prints made after paintings by Boucher were widely circulated and provided artists with compositions that could be faithfully reproduced in smaller scale or adapted to three-dimensional porcelain sculpture. Works by Boucher served as the source not only for the painted scenes on vases and snuffboxes, but also for the porcelain figures which were listed as "Enfants Boucher" (Boucher Children) in the factory’s sales ledgers.

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The fifty thousand objects in the Museum's comprehensive and historically important collection of European sculpture and decorative arts reflect the development of a number of art forms in Western European countries from the early fifteenth through the early twentieth century. The holdings include sculpture in many sizes and media, woodwork and furniture, ceramics and glass, metalwork and jewelry, horological and mathematical instruments, and tapestries and textiles. Ceramics made in Asia for export to European markets and sculpture and decorative arts produced in Latin America during this period are also included among these works.

Metropolitan Museum of Art