{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O125778"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O125778/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006BH7651/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006BH7651/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006BH7651","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O125778/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O125778","accessionNumber":"1592-1869","objectType":"Oil painting","titles":[{"title":"The Embarkation: an 18th century costume piece","type":""}],"summaryDescription":"François Bocion (1828-1890) was born in Lausanne. He first trained with Christian Gottlieb Steinlen (1779-1847) in Vevey and subsequently with François Bonnet (1811-1894) in Lausanne. In Paris in 1845, Bocion entered the atelier of Louis-Aimé Grosclaude (1784-1869) and later that of Charles Gleyre (1806-1874) and befriended Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) and other important exponents of the Realist movement. Back in Lausanne in 1849 he became a teacher at the Ecole moyenne et industrielle of Lausane, a position he held until his death. At the same time, he had an extensive output with several travels abroad. He exhibited in Paris, Vienna, Anvers, London and was a founder member of the Swiss society of watercolorists (1884). \r\n\r\nThis painting is a fine example of Bocion's history paintings and costume pieces he produced very early in his career. It shows some Venetians aristocrats on a gondola docked at the entrance of the park of a villa. Bocion produced relatively few similar compositions and soon specialised in what would become the main thematic of his oeuvre: views in the surroundings of the Lake Leman.","physicalDescription":"A group of ladies and a gentlemen in 18th-century costume boarding a canopied gondola morred at the bottom of a flight of steps leading down to a canal.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Bocion, François","id":"A9628"},"association":{"text":"painter (artist)","id":"AAT25136"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"oil paint","id":"AAT15050"},{"text":"panel","id":"AAT14657"}],"techniques":[{"text":"oil painting","id":"AAT178684"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Oil on panel","categories":[{"text":"Paintings","id":"THES48917"}],"styles":[{"text":"Swiss School","id":"x31273"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2006BH7651"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"A","id":"THES304472"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"oil paintings","id":"AAT33799"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Paris","id":"x29068"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"},"note":"probably"}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1848","earliest":"1848-01-01","latest":"1848-12-31"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Bequeathed by Rev. Chauncey Hare Townshend","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"24","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"estimate","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"33","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"estimate","note":""},{"dimension":"","value":"","unit":"","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":"Measurement taken at time of assessment prior to BH decant - Frame Dimensions (mm): H-381 W-480 D-50;\nPainting Dimensions (mm): not measured"}],"dimensionsNote":"Dimensions taken from C.M. Kauffmann, <i>Catalogue of Foreign Paintings, II. 1800-1900</i>, London, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1973","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"'F Bocion 1848'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Signed and dated by the artist, lower left"}],"objectHistory":"Rev. Chauncey Hare Townshend, listed in the 1868 post-mortem register of the contents of his villa in Lausanne (V&A R/F MA/1/T1181) as 'Oil on Millboard. The Embarkation. By F. Bocion. Signed. Swiss. Dated 184[8?]'; bequeathed by Rev. Chauncey Hare Townshend, 1868.\n\nHistorical significance: This painting is one of a group of 16 paintings bequeathed to the museum by the Rev. Townshend who had a villa in Lausanne where he spent the winter. \r\nThis painting is a fine example of costume pieces Bocion produced at the beginning of his career. The date suggests that he executed this painting in Paris where he resided between 1845 and 1849. Bocion made his artistic debut as a history painter under the influence in Paris of such artists as Charles Gleyre (1806-1874). The present painting shows Venetians aristocrats in 18th-century costumes on a gondola at the entrance of a palace in Venice or most likely on the Brenta river where Venetians usually retired during the summer. \r\nSimilar compositions include: <i>Women in 18th-century costumes</i>, Victoria and Albert Museum, London and <i>Druey in the abbey-church of Payerne</i>, Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne.\r\nUpon his return to Lausanne in 1849, Bocion would soon give up this subject matter to concentrate on peaceful scenes set by the Lake Leman in Switzerland.\r\nThis painting was probably bought by the Rev. Townshend directly from the artist and displayed in his villa in Lausanne where it completed there a large collection of 19th-century landscapes paintings. The Victoria and Albert Museum owns the most comprehensive group of Bocion's paintings in the U.K.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Oil Painting, 'The Embarkation: an 18th Century Costume Piece', François Bocion, Swiss school, 1848","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Kauffmann, C.M., <u>Catalogue of Foreign Paintings, II. 1800-1900</u>, London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1973, p. 7,  cat. no. 16."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Reymondin, Michel, <u>Catalogue Raisonné de François Bocion</u>, Immerc: Wormer, 1989, no. 6, p. 11."}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["1592-1869"],"accessionNumberNum":"1592","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1869,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-16","recordCreationDate":"2006-07-06","availableToBook":true}}