My visit to the Timken Museum!

For my museum visit I decided to visit the Timken Museum. It was my first time visiting and I was really pleased with everything I got to see today. The painting I chose was Lovers in the Park by Francois Boucher. I was especially drawn to this piece because I automatically recognized the Rococo style of the painting which I really liked. To have the opportunity to experience seeing a Rococo painting in person really brings to life everything that we learned in class such as the soft brushstrokes and colors that are involved in the Rococo style. I decided to test my skills and try to get a meaning out of the painting on my own. From my first few glances I took in that the couple on the right had wealthy looking clothing so they much have been aristocrats. To the right, there is another woman walking by and it seems the man is smirking in a flirtatious way to her while his girlfriends stares into space. I also noticed that there were two statues above them of babies and they seemed to be aware of what was going on in the picture as they looked down at the couple. I felt the statues were a symbol of innocence since they were babies and there is also a dog with the couple which I thought was a symbol of loyalty. I figured the image professed to say that men at that time were powerful and wealthy, and could get away with having more than one woman as their wives or girlfriends absentmindedly looked away, although you can tell the girlfriend in the painting seems a bit uneasy with the situation. I figured it was for the male gaze since the women attire was provocatively buttoned down and showed off their bust. Later, I decided to spend 3 dollars on one of those listening gadgets which supply you with more information on the painting. It turns out that the painting is Boucher's way of commenting on the endless game of love. "It invites the viewer to dream awhile" it continued to say and it successfully did that for me. I felt like I had stepped in a dreamy Rococo world. My imagination was running wild with thoughts of what happened next. Did the girlfriend say something to him? Did the milkmaid (the woman to the right) keep walking or stop to chat? I mean this guy's girlfriend weaved him a wreath of flowers after all, how is he going to blatantly flirt with the milk maid?! Right?! haha.

Anyways, I came to the conclusion that the image professes to say that love is an innocent game. It seemed to portray the daydream on an aristocratic male and I believe the audience is surely for the wealthy to view, primarily males, because it was made to decorate the Salon. I'm not exactly sure who it was commissioned for but with further information from that handy gadget I did find out that he was Madame de Pompadour's favorite artist, Louis XV's mistress, and he was appointed in 1765 to be the First Painter to the King. Lovers in the Park was made in 1758.