Shepherd and Shepherdess in a Bucolic Landscape Gm-34482301

Jean-Baptiste Huet (French, 1745–1811) This typically pastoral Rococo drawing depicts a young couple hiding from prying eyes between a thatched roof and haystack and behind some trees. The young woman is sitting up to observe cattle herded back from grazing, while the young man remains in hiding, hardly visible to the viewer. The composition is deliberately concealing, as if to suggest that secrecy is its true subject.

The sheet dates from the year François Boucher died, and it shows the extent to which Huet adopted his predecessor's sensuously pictorial technique, which often involved using different kinds of chalk.