This antique Madame de Pompadour print is a period colour reproduction after François Boucher’s 1758 portrait of the Marquise de Pompadour. Research identifies the image with a circa 1915 reproduction published by Virtue & Co., London, in Alfred Yockney’s International Art: Past and Present.
François Boucher painted the original portrait in 1758, and the painting is held by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. This item is a later early twentieth-century reproduction of that painting and is not an original artwork or original print by Boucher.
Antique Madame de Pompadour Print c.1915
The composition shows Madame de Pompadour seated in a wooded garden setting, wearing a pale dress and holding an open book. The portrait is closely associated with the French Rococo tradition for which Boucher is particularly well known.
The colour image is mounted on a blue paper support and retains its translucent printed tissue guard. The period caption reads “THE MARQUIS DE POMPADOUR” and “BY FRANCOIS BOUCHER”, together with references to the Victoria & Albert Museum and Virtue & Co., London.
Contemporary bibliographical records for International Art: Past and Present describe the publication as containing mounted photochemical colour reproductions with titled paper guards, closely matching the construction visible on this example.
- Subject: Madame de Pompadour / Marquise de Pompadour
- Original artist: François Boucher
- Original painting date: 1758
- Reproduction date: Circa 1915
- Publisher: Virtue & Co., London
- Publication attribution: International Art: Past and Present, Alfred Yockney
- Format: Mounted colour reproduction with captioned tissue guard
- Approximate visible image size: 17.5 cm wide × 21.5 cm high
- Framing: Unframed
Condition
The print displays age-related wear consistent with an early twentieth-century paper item. The translucent captioned tissue guard has pronounced vertical creasing and folds, and there is general handling and edge wear to the paper and mount. The colour image itself remains clearly visible in the supplied photographs.
Please study all photographs carefully, including the tissue guard and measurement images, as they form an important part of the condition description.
This is a genuine period reproduction dating from around 1915, rather than a modern made-to-order reprint. It should not, however, be confused with an original eighteenth-century work or an original print personally produced by François Boucher.
