Ancienne Mode Françoise, from Recueil de diverses fig.res étrangeres Inventées par F. Boucher P.tre du Roy et Gravées par F. Ravenet (Collection of Various Foreign Figures, Devised by F. Boucher, Painter of the King and Engraved [etched] by F. Ravenet), plate 4 1721 - 1774

Editor: Here we have "Ancienne Mode Françoise," plate four from *Recueil de diverses fig.res etrangeres Inventées par F. Boucher...*, sometime between 1721 and 1774, an engraving by Simon Francis Ravenet after a drawing by François Boucher. The subject has a real, grounded feeling in the drapery, and yet also floats slightly, like an ideal. What do you see in it? Curator: I see an exercise in refined fantasy. Boucher was King Louis XV’s painter, you see, a master of Rococo deliciousness. But Ravenet, here, tempers that deliciousness, grounding it in a way Boucher rarely bothered with. Notice how Ravenet's cross-hatching brings weight and form, versus pure visual pleasure? It’s a study in contrasts, in fact. Editor: A contrast in intentions? I'd assumed Boucher's original drawing would have had some of this weightiness to begin with. Curator: Perhaps, but Ravenet amplifies it. It makes me wonder – what *did* Ravenet think of the “Ancienne Mode?” Did it represent, for him, an alluring ideal, or was he more taken with the groundedness? That profile… haughty, isn't it? Almost satirical? I wonder what she’s looking at so intently, off in the distance. The whiff of some coming trouble? A more fetching gown? Editor: So you’re seeing more than just a document of fashion, but almost a commentary *on* fashion. Curator: Precisely. It whispers of powdered wigs, whispered intrigues, and the beautiful prison of court life. Maybe it's just me projecting! Editor: No, I see it too. I think I understand that word *fantasy* much better now. Thanks. Curator: My pleasure. These old prints always lead us down interesting paths, don't they?