Travelers on the Move

Artist François Boucher (French, 1703 - 1770)

Dateca. 1767

MediumBlack and white chalk on gray prepared canvas

DimensionsUnframed: 20 1/4 x 29 1/2 inches (51.44 x 74.93 cm)
Framed: 25 x 34 x 2 1/4 inches (63.5 x 86.36 x 5.72 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number33-668

On View

Not on view

Collections

European Art

Terms

Exhibition History

The Century of Mozart, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, January 15-March 4, 1956, no. 127, as The Exodus of the Shepherds.

French Master Drawings of the 17^th and 18^th Centuries in North American Collections, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, September 2-October 15, 1972; The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, November 3-December 17, 1972; California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, January 12-March 11, 1973; The New York Cultural Center, April 4-May 6, 1973, no. 15, as The Caravan.

Three Masters of Landscape: Fragonard, Robert, and Boucher, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, November 10-December 27, 1981, no. 38, as The Exodus of the Shepherds or The Caravan.

Master Drawings from the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, Washington University Gallery of Art, Saint Louis, MO, September 22-December 3, 1989, unnumbered, as Study for “Returning from Market”.

Master Drawings from Polish Collections, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, April 17-June 6, 1993. NAMA addition.

Dürer to Matisse: Master Drawings from the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, The Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, OK, June 23-August 18, 1996; The Cummer Museum and Gardens, Jacksonville, FL, September 20-November 29, 1996; The Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, December 21, 1996-March 2, 1997, no. 44, as The Gypsy Caravan.

Dürer to Matisse: Master Drawings from the Permanent Collection, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, July 12-September 6, 1998, no cat., as The Gypsy Caravan.

The Drawings of François Boucher, The Frick Collection, New York, October 8-December 14, 2003; The Kimbell Art Museum, Forth Worth, TX, January 18-April 18, 2004, no. 81, as Travelers on the Move.

Religious Subjects: A Variety of Approaches, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, June 8-October 16, 2011, unnumbered, as Travelers on the Move.

Gallery Label

This drawing relates to two large canvases painted late in the artist's career for the Hôtel de Richelieu in Paris. The combination of figures and animals creates the picturesque effect of the hustle and confusion of a journey. The composition was probably inspired by drawings of similar subjects by the Genoese 17th-century artist Castiglione, one of which is exhibited nearby, who was much admired by French collectors of the time. Both Castiglione's and Boucher's drawings may possibly be related to Old Testament accounts of migrations or movement of peoples

Provenance

M. de Frey, Paris;

Tableaux anciens, tableaux modernes, objets d'art de haute curiosité du XVIIIe siècle et d'extrême-orient, composant la collection de Mr de Frey sale, Galerie Charpentier, Paris, June 12-14, 1933, lot 1;

Arnold Seligmann, Rey and Company, New York;

Purchased from Arnold Seligmann Rey and Company by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1933.

Published References

Catalogue des tableaux anciens, tableaux modernes, objets d'art de haute curiosité du XVIIIe siècle et d'extrême-orient, composant la collection de Mr de Frey et dont la vente aux enchères publiques aura lieu à Paris, Galerie Jean Charpentier (Paris: Société d'Imprimeries "FESTINA", Galerie Charpentier, June 12-14, 1933).

“The Century of Mozart,” Bulletin (The Nelson Gallery and Atkins Museum) vol. 1, no. 1 (January 1956): 35, 59, (repro.), as The Exodus of the Shepherds.

Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 110, (repro.), as The Exodus of The Shepherds.

Pierre Rosenberg, “Dessins français du XVIIe et du XVIIIe siècle dans les collections américaines,” L’Œil 18, no. 212-13 (August-September 1972): 12.

Pierre Rosenberg, French Master Drawings of the 17^th and 18^th Centuries in North American Collections, trans. Catherine Johnson, exh. cat. (Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 1972), 105, 138-39, (repro.), as The Caravan.

Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 1, Art of the Occident, 5^th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 186, (repro.), as The Exodus of The Shepherds.

Pinkney L. Near, Three Masters of Landscape: Fragonard, Robert, and Boucher, exh. cat. (Richmond, VA: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1981), 52, (repro.), as The Exodus of the Shepherds or The Caravan.

Roger Ward and Mark S. Weil, Master Drawings from the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, exh. cat. (St. Louis, MO: Washington University Gallery of Art, 1989), 7, 44, (repro.), as Study for “Returning from Market”.

Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 192, (repro.), as Study for “Returning from Market.”

Roger Ward, Dürer to Matisse: Master Drawings from the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, exh. cat. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1996), 147-48, (repro.), as The Gypsy Caravan.

Alastair Laing, The Drawings of François Boucher, exh. cat. (New York: American Federation of Arts, 2003), 208-09, 251, (repro.), as Travelers on the Move.

Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 103, (repro.), as Travelers on the Move.

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