Accession Number
1965/2.77

Title
Sleeping Infant

Artist(s)
François Boucher

Object Creation Date
1703-1770

Medium & Support
black and white chalk on gray paper

Dimensions
8 7/16 in x 7 7/8 in (21.43 cm x 20 cm);19 3/8 in x 14 3/8 in (49.21 cm x 36.51 cm)

Credit Line
Museum Purchase

Label copy
This engaging chalk drawing of a sleeping infant could have become a study for a painting depicting the Christ child or perhaps a genre scene that includes children. Both the Infant Jesus Asleep, in the Pushkin Museum, and the Halt at the Fountain at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston have been proposed as final projects for which this drawing may have been a study. Regardless of whether Boucher used this drawing as a study for a larger composition, it demonstrates the artist’s ability to quickly catch the softness and intimacy of infancy in this drawing clearly executed from life.
Exhibition label copy from "Eighteenth Century French Prints and Drawings," February 1 - May 4, 2003 by Curator Carole McNamara
Gallery Rotation Fall 2010
François Boucher
France, 1703–1770
Sleeping Infant
1703–70
Black and white chalk on gray paper
Museum purchase, 1965/2.77
This engaging chalk drawing of a sleeping infant was most likely a preparatory sketch for a painting depicting the Christ child or perhaps a genre scene that includes children. Both the Infant Jesus Asleep, in Moscow’s Pushkin Museum, and the Halt at the Fountain at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, have been proposed as final projects for which this drawing may have been a study. Regardless of whether Boucher used this drawing as a study for a larger composition, it is clearly executed from life and demonstrates the artist’s ability to capture the softness
and intimacy of infancy.

Subject matter
This depiction of a sleeping baby was drawn by the artist from life and done as a preparatory drawing, possibly for a religious or genre scene.

Physical Description
This is a square format drawing done with white and black chalk against a grayish background. It shows a sleeping infant, wrapped in cloth, with hands clasped on its chest.

Primary Object Classification
Drawing

Primary Object Type
portrait

Collection Area
Western

Rights
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Keywords
infants
sleeping