François Boucher was a French painter born in 1703 and worked in the Rococo style. He was originally trained by his father, Nicholas Boucher, and as a teenager apprenticed under both François Lemoyne and Jean-Françios Cars. At the age of 30 Boucher married Marie-Jeanne Buzeau and they had three children together.

His paintings were the epitome of the Rococo style, and his lasting impression on art history was that of a genre artist. Pastel colours, light tone and indirect lighting gives his early work an ideallic and airy feeling. Boucher’s paintings were seemingly erotic, through both symbolism and blatant imagery. When he wasn’t painting vaguely erotic scenes, he painted perfect family scenes, often using his own wife and children as reference.

Boucher didn’t just do painting. He also drew and participated in the art of printmaking. He did many sketches to prepare for his paintings, and also did a lot of etching and engraving. There are approximately 180 copper plate etchings as a part of his body of work.