Boucher and Chardin : Masters of Modern Manners

Boucher and Chardin examines the relationship between two iconic images of French art of the 18th century: Woman Taking Tea (1735) by Jean-Siméon Chardin and its pair, Madame Boucher (1743) by François Boucher. Both paintings are believed to represent the respective artists'' wives. When considered together, the two paintings acquire a new resonance, showing the imaginative and Parisian response of two very different painters to a new interest in scenes from everyday life.

The paintings are examined in the context of a dozen further works by the artists, and prints, drawings, books, and decorative art objects including oriental textiles and porcelain. This provides an opportunity to address undercurrent social history themes, such as the artists'' attitudes toward fashion, interior decoration, and even the consumption of tea. Christoph Martin Vogtherr writes on genre painting of the period, and Ann Eatwell on the fashion for tea and its "equipage" in London and Paris.