Tre drengehoveder. Studier til dørstykke på Amalienborg 1703 - 1770

Francois Boucher made this red chalk drawing, "Three Boys' Heads. Studies for overdoor at Amalienborg," as studies for a decorative project in the royal palace in Copenhagen. Boucher was deeply enmeshed in the French court, capturing the frivolous, sensual aesthetic of the Rococo. Aristocratic patronage afforded him the opportunity to focus on the aesthetic and decorative, rather than the social or political. This drawing reflects the values of its time, embodying the idealized innocence and beauty associated with childhood in elite circles. But seen from our contemporary moment, this artwork reflects the vast inequalities of 18th-century European society, where such refined depictions of children existed alongside widespread poverty and child mortality among the lower classes. The cherubic faces speak volumes about the era's social structures, class divisions, and the romanticized distance of the aristocracy from the realities of everyday life.