The Mill at Charenton

Artist François Boucher (French, 1703-1770)

Place of OriginFrance

Date1758

Dimensions44 1/2 x 57 1/2 in. (113 x 146 cm)

Mediumoil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1954.18

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 27

Label TextThe village of Charenton, at the meeting of the Seine and Marne rivers, was a favorite location in the 18th century for excursions of noble men and women seeking to escape Paris for “simpler” environs. The building in this painting would have been recognizable as one of the many picturesque mills in the Charenton area. However, it features details that are the fanciful invention of the artist, François Boucher—mills did not typically feature expensive glass windows and decorative swags of greenery. The painting is filled with a sense of the fruitfulness of the earth: trees covered with foliage, the rushing stream banked with bushes, and a multitude of white doves flying around the mill. Sparkling white highlights enliven the lush summer scene. The inhabitants of this idyllic world are perhaps as fanciful as the mill itself—they are healthy, handsome, and immaculately dressed for peasants.Published ReferencesMichel, A., L. Soullié and C. Masson, François Boucher, Paris, 1889, no. 1763.

"French Paintings: for a new gallery in the Toledo Museum, Ohio," Illustrated London News, vol. 227, August 13, 1955, p. 271, repr.

Charmet, Raymond, "L'Art Francais au Musée de Toledo," Art Spectacles, no. 556, February 22, 1956, p. 14.

Grigault, Paul L., "Baroque and Rococo France in Toledo," Art Quarterly, vol. 19, no. 1, Spring 1956, pp. 53-54.

Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, "French Art," vol. 3, no. 4, Autumn 1960, repr. p. 89.

Spaeth, Eloise, American Art Museums and Galleries, New York, 1960, p. 133.

A Guide to the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, 1966, repr. (col.).

Watson, F. J. B. "Eighteenth-century painting and decorative arts," Apollo, vol. 86, no. 70, December 1967, p. 464, repr. fig. 15, p. 460.

Causey, Andrew, "When elegance reached its zenith," Illustrated London News, vol. 252, no. 6701, January 6, 1968, p. 18, repr. (col.) p. 21.

Sutton, Denys, France in the Eighteenth Century, London, Royal Academy, 1968, p. 49, no. 55, fig. 129, p. XLI.

Spaeth, Eloise, American Art Museums, New York, 1969, rev. ed., p. 205.

Edlin, Herbert L., Trees and Timbers, London, 1973, p. 37, repr.

Ananoff, Alexandre, "François Boucher et l'Amerique," L'Oeil, no. 251, June 1976, p. 23, repr. p. 21.

Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, p. 27-28, pl. 201.

The Toledo Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collections, Toledo, 1976, repr. p. 67 (col.).

Ananoff, Alexandre, François Boucher, Lausanne, 1976, pp. 179-180, no. 505, repr. fig. 1402.

Oklahoma Museum of Art, Masters of the Landscape 1650-1900, 1977, no. 8 (not in exhibition).

Ananoff, Alexandre, L'opera completa di Boucher, Milan, 1980, no. 533, p. 129, repr. p. 128 and (col.) Tav. L.

Art News, vol. 79, no. 10, Dec. 1980, repr., p. 5 (ad for Wildenstein exhibition).

Young, Mahroni Sharp, "La plus belle fille du monde," Apollo, vol. 112, no. 225, Nov. 1980, p. 346, repr.

Old Master paintings: Cranach to Corot, Fort Worth, 1982, p. 32. (not in exhibition)

Bailey, Colin B., ed., The first painters of the king, New York, 1985, repr. p. 136 (not in exhbition).

Rosenberg, Pierre and Michel Hilaire, Boucher, 60 chefs-d'oeuvre, Fribourg, 1986, pl. 53, (col.).

François Boucher, his circle and influence, New York, Stair Sainty Matthiesen, 1987, p. 53, 55. (not in exhibition)

Wintermute, Alan, ed., Claude to Corot: the development of landscape painting in France, New York, 1990, p. 89, fig. 7. (not in exhibtion)

Koch-Hillebrecht, Manfred, Museen in den USA: Gemalde, Munich, 1992, p. 232, 233.

The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Treasures, Toledo, 1995, p. 109, repr. (col.).

Gibson, Walter S., Pleasant places: the rustic landscape from Bruegel to Ruisdael, Berkeley, 2000, p. 177, fig. 124.

Bailey, Colin B., Jean-Baptiste Greuze: The Laundress, Los Angeles, 2000, p. 59-60, fig. 53 (col.).

Duncan, Sally Anne, Otto Wittmann: Museum Man for All Seasons, Toledo, 2001, p. 23.

Joulie, Françoise and Jean-François Méjanès, François Boucher: hier et aujourd'hui, Paris, Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 2003, p. 78.

Bailey, Colin B., " 'Details that surreptitiously explain': Boucher as genre painter," in Rethinking Boucher, edited by Melissa Hyde and Mark Ledbury, Los Angeles, Getty, 2006, p. 53, 59, n59, fig. 10, p. 52.

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 206-207, repr. (col.) and (det.).

Pomarède, Vincent, Corot e l'arte moderna: souvenirs et impressions, Venice, Marsilio, 2009, p. 67, fig. 6 (col.) p. 69 (not in exhibition).

Exhibition HistoryLondon, Royal Academy, France in the Eighteenth Century, 1968, no. 55, fig. 129.

Toledo, The Toledo Museum of Art, The Age of Louis XV: French Painting 1710-1774, 1975, no. 10, pl. 89 (cat. by P. Rosenberg).

New York, Wildenstein, François Boucher, 1980, no. 25, p. 42, repr.

New York, Metropolitan; Detroit, Detroit Institute of Arts; Paris, Grand Palais, François Boucher 1703-1770, 1986-1987, no. 69, pp. 280-283, repr. (col.) p. 281.

New York, Frick Collection, Masterpieces of European painting from the Toledo Museum of Art, 2002-2003, p. [10], repr.(col.).

Toledo, Toledo Museum of Art, From the Collection: 300 Years of French Landscape Painting, Jul. 17-Oct. 11, 2015.