The Departure of Jacob
1755
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
About the artist
Artist
François Boucher
François Boucher was a French painter, draughtsman and etcher, who worked in the Rococo style.
See the richer artist page1755
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
The Departure of Jacob is a 1755 by François Boucher, a Romanticism work, depicting Adoration of the Shepherds, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
A family rests under a palm tree while others pack a cart nearby. Sunlight filters through leaves, lighting up a mother and baby. Boucher usually painted fluffy shepherds and goddesses, so this quiet Bible scene is rare. The dark outlines and soft shadows make the figures feel solid, even though it’s just ink or chalk. Look up more drawings from The Cleveland Museum of Art to see how artists planned big paintings.
François Boucher was known for romantic, idealized pastoral scenes and produced relatively few religious works. This drawing, however, is believed to relate to the Old Testament story in which Jacob travels to Canaan with his family. Boucher used a limited palette of brown, red, and black to create dramatic shadows and highlights. The family is seen basking in the dappled sunlight that illuminates the mother and her baby as they rest beneath a palm tree. The sheet may have served as a preparatory study for a similar painting by Boucher that is lost today and known only through a reproductive…
The gesture between the couple in this drawing -- in which the man offers the woman a pear -- is seen in several other works by François Boucher.
Read the full account in the museum source.
François Boucher was a French painter, draughtsman and etcher, who worked in the Rococo style.
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