La volupté du goût

From 1745 to 1765, twenty short years that correspond almost exactly to the « reign » of Louis XV's favorite, Madame de Pompadour, French painting went through a period of intense creativity that challenged the prevalent artistic dogmas. Violent aesthetic debates enlivened the « Pompadour generation », which was also the generation of the authors of the Encyclopédie. A new fascination with historical and archeological research gave rise to art criticism and art history, while salons, art patrons, and commissions multiplied.

At the same time, powerful figures such as Fragonard, Boucher, Chardin and Greuze developed personal styles of painting situated between eroticism and naturalism. Reproducing some fifty canvases by the greatest artists, this volume offers a new presentation of a golden age of French painting.

This book accompanies an exhibition entitled La Volupté du gout : French Painting in the Age of Madame de Pompadour, organized by the Portland Art Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts in Tours under the aegis of the French Regional American Museum Exchange (FRAME). Thanks to the latter, some of the most prestigious works in American and French museums have been brought together.