Allegory of Painting 1765

François Boucher made this oil on canvas, *Allegory of Painting*, sometime in the mid-18th century. Look closely and you’ll see the artist has depicted the materials of his trade: brushes, a maulstick to steady the hand, and a palette laid out with ground pigments. Boucher was the leading painter of the French Rococo, a style synonymous with luxury. The delicate, feathery brushwork here results from the slow build-up of many thin layers of oil paint, a time-consuming process possible only with skilled labor. The colours themselves would have been finely ground by hand. With paintings like these, Boucher was fulfilling commissions for an aristocratic clientele. This canvas is a symbolic representation, in other words, but one that is intimately connected to the practical realities of the artist’s studio. It offers a glimpse into the world of artistic production in 18th century Paris, a city where fine art and fine craft were deeply intertwined.