François BOUCHER (1703–1770). A young boy holding a basket of flowers. Black chalk, red chalk, white chalk, with highlights in blue and green pastel on buff paper (slightly sun-faded). Mounted flat, with a black ink outline added. Height: 31 cm - Width: 20 cm Accompanied by an expert appraisal report by Françoise Joulie dated January 21, 2020. Note: Children dressed like little adults are a hallmark of François Boucher and a new concept he introduced to art lovers after 1745; in 1748, the Vincennes porcelain manufactory produced its first soft-paste porcelain children, and after moving to Sèvres, it chose to produce “Boucher Children” to launch the new manufactory, which had become royal. A second series of children’s figures was later created for Sèvres by Falconet, given the success of the first ones. In Beauvais and especially at the Gobelins, during the same years of the 1750s, this trend of depicting childhood was accompanied by designs for chairs and screens, all inspired by Boucher. These children, dressed like miniature adults and engaged in everyday activities, were also the subjects of paintings; the decorative panels in the Frick Collection in New York are the most famous, but Boucher was also commissioned to create individual paintings or pairs of works—either in oil or pastel—on these child-themed subjects. The success was such that in the 1760s, Boucher produced finished drawings for art lovers—always in comparable dimensions (around 30 by 20 cm)—using techniques that involved two or three pencils, sometimes enhanced with pastel, intended to be framed; these include “The Little Peasant,” “The Young Forager,” “Child Playing with a Dog,” “The Little Gardener,” and, here, “Young Boy Holding a Basket of Flowers”…. This drawing corresponds exactly—in subject, dimensions (11.6 inches by 7.3 inches), and technique—to one of those described in the 1777 auction of the Randon de Boisset collection, under lot no. 364, acquired by Desmarets. In the Randon de Boisset collection, this drawing had a companion piece depicting a little girl seen from behind, holding a bouquet and a basket of flowers, which is no longer accounted for. Our drawing was also part of the collection of Jean-Claude Gaspard de Sireul; his sale, Paris, Boileau, December 3, 1781, et seq., lot 52, 120 livres (Neil Jeffares, Dictionary of Pastel Artists Before 1800, online edition: http://www.pastellists.com/Articles/Boucher.pdf#search="J.173.7135", our drawing illustrated on p. 19, J.173.7135).