The Gardener
Nicolas Lancret·c. 1723–27
Historical Context
The Gardener from Lancret's wall panel series from around 1723-27 depicts a figure tending a formal garden — a subject that combined the Rococo interest in idealized outdoor leisure with the specific pleasures of garden culture that characterized French aristocratic life. The formal garden as painted setting provided Lancret with sculptural fountains, clipped hedges, and architectural garden features that gave his compositions structure and depth while the figures engaged in the garden pleasures that characterized Rococo leisure culture. The gardener figure allowed him to introduce a note of active labor into compositions otherwise dominated by idle aristocratic pleasure.
Technical Analysis
Lancret renders the gardener figure with the decorative elegance characteristic of his ornamental work. The garden setting is painted with light, atmospheric brushwork and a warm, luminous palette. The composition is designed to function within the ensemble, with balanced proportions suitable for wall decoration.
Provenance
Viscount Pierre de Chezelles and Vicomte Hippolyte le Sellier de Chezelles; Lord Duveen, 1869 - 1939 (London, England); Mr. 'Commodore' Louis Dudley Beaumont (1857-1942) and Mrs. Beaumont (Helene M. Thomas) (1895-1988), Cap d’Antibes, France; Louis Dudley Beaumont Foundation, by gift to the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1948.; The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
