The Fortune Teller

Maker Beauvais Tapestry Manufactory (active 1664, combined with Gobelins 1940)

MakerUnder the direction of Jean-Baptiste Oudry (French, 1686 - 1755)

Makerand Nicolas Besnier (co-director of the manufactory, 1734-1753)

Makeror under the directorship of André Charlemagne Charron (director, 1754-1780) (French tapestry maker, active 1757 - 1780)

Designerdesigned by François Boucher (French, 1703 - 1770)

Additional Title(s)

La Bohémienne
Italian Village Scenes

Collections

European Decorative Art Highlights

ClassificationsDECORATIVE ARTS

Dateca. 1738-1754

Mediumwool and silk; modern linen supprt straps, dust bands, and linings

Dimensions105 x 73 1/2 in. (266.7 x 186.7 cm.)

DescriptionThis tapestry is part of a set of five tapestries portraying Italian village scenes. "The Gypsy Fortune Teller" depicts a pastoral scene with Classical ruins in which a woman is reading the palm of a mother carrying her baby in her back. On the left side, a young man is crowning a woman with a wreath of flowers.

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. The Arabella D. Huntington Memorial Art Collection.

Status

On view

Label TextBoucher was already well established as a painter, engraver, and theatrical designer when he turned his talents to tapestry in the 1730s. This suite of five tapestries was inspired by his travels in rural Italy. Boucher designed six suites of tapestries for the Beauvais Manufactory over two decades. The Italian Village Scenes was his first suite; an example of his last suite, The Noble Pastorale, hangs downstairs in the Large Library.

Portfolio or SeriesOne of eight tapestries in the Fetes Italiennes series designed by Francois Boucher.

Object number20.7