An Artist So Popular, He Can’t Be Any Good

“François Boucher was surely the most beguiling painter who ever lived, capable of giving the most pleasure to the client – and presumably the sitter too.” And yet, Boucher’s reputation lies at the bottom of a pile of more “high-minded” painters, a victim of the popularity he enjoyed in life. And while it’s true that Boucher was perhaps a bit too infatuated with small, unimportant work (designing Easter eggs for a king, for example,) he was also an undeniably brilliant artist who was forever being plastered with labels he did not deserve. In the end, his greatest crime in the eyes of today’s elitist art audience may have been making too many people happy.