François Boucher (French: [fʁɑ̃swa buʃe]; 29 September 1703 – 30 May 1770) was a French painter in the Rococo style. Boucher is known for his idyllic and voluptuous paintings on classical themes, decorative allegories, and pastoral scenes. He was perhaps the most celebrated painter and decorative artist of the 18th century. He also painted several portraits of his patroness, Madame de Pompadour.

Life

A native of Paris, Boucher was the son of a minor painter Nicolas Boucher, who gave him his first artistic training. At the age of seventeen, a painting by Boucher was admired by the painter François Lemoyne. Lemoyne later appointed Boucher as his apprentice, but after only three months, he went to work for the engraver Jean-François Cars. In 1720, he won the elite Grand Prix de Rome for painting, but did not take up the consequential opportunity to study in Italy until five years later, due to financial problems at the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture. On his return from studying in Italy he was admitted to the refounded Académie de peinture et de sculpture on 24 November 1731. His morceau de réception (reception piece) was his Rinaldo and Armida of 1734.

François Boucher (1860 – c. 1936) was a Canadian violinist and music educator. Born in Montreal, Boucher was the son of Canadian publisher and musician Adélard Joseph Boucher and the brother of conductor Joseph-Arthur Boucher. His initial violin studies were with Jules Hone and Frantz Jehin-Prume. In 1876 he went to Europe to study at the Royal Conservatory of Liège with Lambert Massart. After returning to Canada, he had a triumphany success in Montreal performing Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 in 1881. In 1882 he and his father established a successful music store in Ottawa. That same year he began playing first violin in a string quartet and working as a teacher. In 1887 he joined the faculty of the Toronto Conservatory of Music. He taught concurrently at the Toronto College of Music beginning in 1889. He was a soloist with the Toronto Philharmonic Society in 1893 where he had success performing Max Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1. In 1894 he emigrated to the United States. In 1906 he joined the faculty of the Kansas City Conservatory of Music, where he taught through 1923. His wife taught piano at the conservatory and his daughter was later a singing teacher at the school. He died in Kansas City.