This summer discover new works by British artist Flora Yukhnovich
The Wallace Collection has announced an exciting 2024 collaboration with British artist Flora Yukhnovich (b.1990), renowned for her contemporary interpretation of Rococo paintings.
Drawing inspiration from the French Rococo – whose leading exponents included Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684-1721), François Boucher (1703-1770) and Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806) – Yukhnovich creates extraordinary, large-scale paintings, which move between representation and abstraction.
Home to the most important collection of François Boucher's paintings worldwide, the Wallace Collection has invited Yukhnovich to create two new works inspired by his oeuvre. During his lifetime, Boucher became the most fashionable artist in France under the patronage of Madame de Pompadour (1721-1764), Louis XV's powerful mistress, whose refined tastes would influence French art for two decades. His celebrated and influential paintings have had an enduring influence on Yukhnovich’s work.
Flora’s paintings will temporarily replace two works by François Boucher at the top of the grand staircase on the landing of Hertford House, a unique space at the Collection which displays only works by this undisputed master of the Rococo. Boucher’s two large scenes, Pastoral with a Bagpipe Player (1749) and Pastoral with a Couple near a Fountain (1749), will be moved to a white-walled contemporary display space on the ground floor. Theatrical and tongue-in-cheek, they are prime examples of the Rococo, a decorative and exuberant style favoured across the arts by royal and aristocratic patrons in France and elsewhere from the 1730s.
Flora Yukhnovich and François Boucher: The Language of the Rococo will prompt visitors to reconsider preconceptions, explore how we can connect with the Rococo today and examine the impact of display on art interpretation and historical re-evaluation.
Flora Yukhnovich and François Boucher: The Language of the Rococo
Date: 5 June - 3 November 2024
The Wallace Collection
Hertford House,
Manchester Square,
London W1U 3BN
Further Information: The Wallace Collection