The Abduction of Europa

Artist François Boucher French, 1703–1770

Dateafter 1747

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions63 x 76 1/2 in. (160 x 194.3 cm)
Frame: 76 x 89 1/4 in. (193 x 226.7 cm)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the State of North Carolina

Object number52.9.119

On View

Not on view

ProvenanceCreated France, after 1747. François Armand d' Usson, Marquis de Bonnac (1716–1778), French ambassador to Holland (1751/2-1756); [his sale, November 21, 1757] [1]. Captain Salomon Pierre Prousteau (d. 1781), Paris; [his sale, P. Remy, Paris, June 5, 1769, no. 52]. Comte de Morny; [his sale, December 16-17, 1841, lot 61]; Warneck collection; [his sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, May 10, 1867, lot 1, illustrated]. Mason collection; [his sale February 1, 1875, lot 6, and sale March 1, 1876, lot 1; withdrawn both sales]; "Miss Mason," United States; with Nicholas M. Acquavella Galleries, New York; sold to NCMA, 1953.

[1] The only Bonnac sale of November 21, 1757 that has currently been found is a sale of the Marquis's considerable collection of shells on that date. The NCMA painting does not appear in that catalogue: "Catalogue raisonné d'une collection considerable de coquilles rare et choisies, du cabinet de M. le ***," (Paris: Helle & Remy, 1757).Published References"Catalogue de Tableaux Originaux des trois ecoles...effets du Cabinet de M. Prousteau," (auction catalogue) (Paris: P. Remy, June 5, 1769), lot 52.

Paul Mantz, Boucher, Lemoyne et Natoire (1880), 113.

A. Michel, Boucher (1886), no. 114.

P de Nolhac, François Boucher (1907), 114.

M. Fenaille, François Boucher (1925), 67.

W. R. Valentiner, Catalogue of Paintings: Including Three Sets of Tapestries (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1956), no. 143, illus. (b-w).

W. Aubrey Cartwright, Guide to Art Museums in the United States (New York, 1958), 144.

Alexandre Ananoff, François Boucher, Avec la collaboration de M. Daniel Wildenstein de l'Institut, Tome II (Lausanne-Paris: La Bibliothèque des Arts, 1976), 51-52.

Art Taylor, "Museum Loans," Preview: The Magazine of the North Carolina Museum of Art (March/April 2002), mentioned 7.
Exhibition HistoryWilmington, NC, Louise Wells Cameron Art Museum, "Eighteenth Century Paintings and Sculptures from the North Carolina Museum of Art," April 21, 2002 - March 30, 2003
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