ABSTRACT
This book begins with the sale of Boucher's collection in February 1771, nine months after the artist's death. Held in his studio at the Louvre, the sale was attended by the country's leading collectors, dealers, writers, and artists. Drawing on first-hand accounts of the collection, sale inventories, and estate records, this chapter shows the extent to which Boucher's peers recognized him as one of the greatest artist-turned-collectors of his generation. This assessment is given further context through analysis of the European tradition of the artist-collector, especially as it relates to the eighteenth-century debates on collecting and connoisseurship. Central to this chapter is an investigation of Boucher's potential motivation for collecting. To this end, it looks at the various commercial, professional, and personal decisions he made concerning his collection as relayed in the period literature and with respect to the current field of historical scholarship on Boucher.
