Whilst such painters as Jean Restout (1692-1768) still continued to follow the tradition of the Bolognese eclectics, as may be seen in his _Herminia and the Shepherd_ (No. 775), the art of the Louis XV. period was given its final stamp by François Boucher (1703-1770). This favourite of Mme. de Pompadour, having gained the Prix de Rome in 1723, went to Italy in 1727, whence he returned to Paris four years later. At the age of thirty his _Rinaldo and Armida_ (No. 38A) caused him to be “received” by the Academy—the first of many honours that fell to his share, as he became in turn First Painter to the King, Director of the Academy, and Inspector of the Beauvais Tapestry Manufactory. He was the ideal painter of the age that was dominated by the personality of the Pompadour, who kept him employed with commissions for the decoration of her boudoir. Boucher was the true child of his time—licentious, pleasure-loving, light-hearted, and without moral scruples. The astonishing thing is that his pursuit of pleasure did not affect his enormous productivity. His art is in perfect harmony with his character—frankly sensual, exuberant, and unreliable; at times rising to superb decorative splendour of the airy, graceful type demanded by his patrons, and then again careless to the point of slovenliness. Boucher was not a great colourist in the sense in which this term is applied to masters like Titian or Rubens. Indeed, more often than not his application of purely local colours unaffected by their surroundings is apt to result in the crudeness noticeable in his _Pastoral_ (No. 33), and in the domestic scene called _The Breakfast_ (No. 50A). Other pictures like the _Pastoral_ (No. 34) owe their present tapestry-like mellowness to the fading of the pigments. But it would be unfair to disregard the artist’s intention and to judge his capacity as a colourist from the present appearance of his works at the Louvre or in their usual environment in a public gallery. They were intended for definite decorative purposes, and in their proper Louis XV. setting fulfilled their function in admirable fashion. Few artists excelled Boucher in rhythmic harmony of composition, although it must be confessed that his emphatic insistence on triangular design is apt to become monotonous. This predilection is to be noted in the _Rinaldo and Armida_ (No. 38A), _Venus disarming Cupid_ (No. 44), _The Rape of Europa_ (No. 39), the _Pastorals_ (Nos. 33, 34, and 35), _Vulcan presenting Arms to Venus_ (No. 36, Plate XL.), and, indeed, in the vast majority of his twenty-two exhibited pictures at the Louvre. His mastery in flesh painting is best illustrated by the more unconventionally designed _Diana leaving the Bath_ (No. 30), and the brilliant sketch of _The Three Graces_ (No. 47) in the La Caze Room. Among his other masterpieces at the Louvre, _Venus demanding Arms from Vulcan_ (No. 31), which like No. 36 was designed for execution