The above painting is split into three pieces, not because it is that way on the app, because it isn't. Rather, I wanted to enlarge it, take screen shots and talk about it. As usual, I was meditating on the painting, just trying to get into the artist's head a bit.
The artist is, or was, one Francois Boucher who died in the 18th century. He liked to do landscapes and pastoral pictures and I enjoy them very much. This one is entitled The Shepherd's Presents or The Nest. It is derived from the collection of Louis XV.
If you can enlarge the part in which the people are, you'll see that the man is pointing to something in the lady's lap. It is a bird's nest, with some baby birds in it. To the right side is a homemade trap and bird cage. It is woven from sticks and even has a feeding trough on one side. The captive would have been able to stick its head through the bars and peck at some seed. Mayhap the lad would grind some grass pods in his hands so the seed would go in the feeder. At any rate, I wonder if he had caught the mother bird and heard the babies' piteous cheeps from the nest. After investigation he found the nest and showed it to the ladies. I guess they let the mother go free, and as soon as they replace the nest, she will doubtless return to it. I hope this is so.
I wonder if the lady with the nest is the mother of the two girls, now grown women. I say this because she has some grey hair and is dressed a bit more upscale. (Though she is barefoot.) Is it possible that the two tiny fledglings are a type of the mother's own daughters, so near to fleeing the nest for life itself?
Note that the younger woman on the right is a smidgen in awe of the creation of life in the birds' form. While she watches, her sister(?), the golden-haired lass, keeps on working, sheering the sheep with scissors. She must be like the "Martha" of the family, more practical, the worker who leaves the social niceties to her sister, of the "Mary" sort.
Speaking of the sheep, we see that they have been moved to the higher country, far above the city we can see in the distance. Of course this is cooler in the summer, as is the relief of being shorn. It seems a nice place for sheep and people, with a flow of fresh water, a pool for soaking one's bare feet and flowers to pick. Note the basket in the lower right.
The fountain, with its lovely statues, indicates the childish purity of the scene. I suspect that Boucher looked very fondly on his youth in the country, though I have yet to read his story. I plan to in a few minutes.
The shepherd might have been Boucher himself, in a sweet memory from childhood. Perhaps he painted this from memory as he sat in his flat in Paris, brush in hand. Perhaps this was his own family, come to see him with his flock, while on a flower picking expedition. Perhaps they insisted that their brother let the mother bird go free, as women naturally would. I suspect that, like many great memories, things were not as perfect as they were in his mind's eye. Neither are bad memories always as bad as recalled. For myself, this seems the kind of place I would have liked to work, and fish, and soak my hot feet in the water. And, to have company for talking about books and baby birds, with friends or family. Good day.
P.S. I just looked Boucher up on the web. It seems doubtful that he was painting a scene from childish memory, but, like most authors, creating scenes that we never see is a gift that is quite handy. Have a good day.
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