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4 Boscher fans
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Note to our English speaking visitors. This page (before updating at the end of 2024) had been translated to English and turned to an article in Fana Journal Spring 2007.We strongly recommend every fan interested person to join the Fan Circle International (https://www.fancircleinternational.org/) or the Fan Association of America (www.fanassociation.org), which provide interesting studies, pleasant gatherings and warm friendship ! In France, the Cercle de l'Eventail (https://cercledeleventail.fr/) must of course be considered and offers from time to time excellent colloquiums and studies, now often with English translations.
As we say elsewhere, we seek to be amateurs rather than collectors, to love more than to amass. So we generally avoid creating “series”. Sometimes, however, let's admit it, we don't know how to resist temptation, and we are (for example) then happy to note the differences between various editions of the same advertising fan, as in this fan for the Régie Française des Tabacs that we show on another page... or as in the fans for the international exhibition of 1867 that we mentioned for Le Vieux Papier in October 2022 (https://www.levieuxpapier-asso.org/bulletin/bulletin-doctober-2022/)
Here, however, it is something different: a long time ago, chance put in our hands within a few months 3 fans painted by an artist whom, to tell the truth, we knew little about, but whom we want you to (re)discover here. He signs F. Boscher: first difficulty, because when we advance in the research, we realize that his name is in reality Ferdinand Jean Edouard Boscher... and that therefore he is more often known as "Ferdinand Boscher ", but also as "Jean Edouard Boscher", or even sometimes as Edouard Boscher! About twenty years later, we acquired another fan by the artist, clearly linked to one of the three purchased at the beginning of the century.
Let us add that this is a name which without being very common is not uncommon (possibly with the spellings "Bocher" or "Boché"). Internet research may also lead you to an old reading method, old but always used by certain non-conformist teachers and by parents wanting to avoid their blond heads from learning not to read thanks to global or semi-global methods. These difficulties behind us, we realize that "our Boscher" is an artist born in 1888, who was particularly active in the years 1920/1930, illustrating various journals and contributing in particular to advertisements for Houbigant (famous perfumer known to fans amateurs) and many theatre programs. Settled at the end of his life on the north coast of Brittany, he illustrated various aspects of this area, including the city of Saint Malo devastated at the end of the Second World War (see for example https: //www.navigart. FR/Fnac/Artwork/Ferdinand-Boscher-Vue-de-Saint-Malo-140000000022454). But most often his style, without originality it must be said, had very often led him to represent characters in 18th century attire and cirumstances, not without a slight hue of Marivaudage.
The meeting of Ferdinand Jean Edouard Boscher with the fans is therefore all natural, and one can only regret that it was born a little too late to contribute to the flowering of the pastiches of the end of the 19th century, where he would probably have compete against the Donzels, Maurice Leloir and a few others. Ms. Anne Hoguet, "maître d'art", creator and restorer of fans, who succeeded her father in the premises remarkably fitted out by the fan maker Kees at 2 Bd de Strasbourg in Paris, gave us very useful information. Indeed, she told us that in the 1920s F. Boscher produced watercolor fan leaves of views of Paris for Mr. Norry (successor to the Kees house and predecessor of Mr. Hoguet).
In any case, we invite you to admire the 4 fans which we found, two of which are very typical of his most frequent work, the other two being of the same style but without the usual Louis XV characters (and yet, you will see it, the presence of the king (called for a time “le Bien Aimé" (beloved) is in the lead!. In addition, you will see a few other works by this artist, including at the end of this page a watercolour showing a beautiful lady, her screen and her gallantThe first fan has a tinted wooden frame, with slightly ondulated sticks, a metal rivety, a leaf of paper (for watercolour more than specifically for fans) mounted "à l’anglaise" and brown ink and watercolour with, it seems, a few strokes of gouache. Its height is 21.8 cm (excluding the bélière) and the leaf measures to the widest 13.4 cm. We ignore the precise date of its realization, which we will locate between 1910 and 1925.
Please click at first on the left part of the leaf
Then please click the right side, to have an overview of the undergrowth treatment by the artist, and of his signature.
Here is a second fan, still in the same vein: this time, it is a fishing game where moralists may find that fishermen are also sinners !!!! This fan has a wooden frame with metal loop and rivet, with pierced sticks, slightly wavy guards and encrusted with fine mother-of-pearl layers. The leaf here is also in fairly thick paper appearing made for watercolor more than specifically for fan. It is mounted "à l'anglaise" (no double paper leaf) and painted in ink and watercolor with a few strokes of gouache it seems. . Its height is 21.4 cm (excluding bélière) and the leaf measures 13.5 cm. Here we also ignore the precise date of its realization, which we also locate between 1910 and 1925..
Finally we present two other fans by the same painter, but which testify to a different spirit. Here is a Paris place known all over the world: it is, first of all, seen from the bridge that connects it to the Palais Bourbon, the Place de la Concorde and its famous obelisk. This small fan (16.3 cm, 9.6 cm leaf) is made, like the others here, shown, on watercolor paper but this one with a finer paper offlet. He too is gouache and watercolor.
If we cross the famous square, we are facing the rue Royale with the Madeleine church at the bottom. In the foreground, behind the metro mouths and underground passage, there are the prestigious buildings of the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne (wardrobe of the Crown) before the French Revolution, long affected since then to the Ministry of the Navy. These buildings renovated in their 18th century spirit have been open to the public since 2021 and also house the exhibitions of the remarkable Al-Thani collection. On the left, due as the first to Ange-Jacques Gabriel, the majestic constructions house the Hotel de Crillon (renowned 5 stars luxury palace), the Automobile Club de France and the International Automobile Federation. This last fan has a bone monture (of good quality: it looks like ivory) with metal rivet and "eyes". The leaf is made from the same watercolor paper. It is mounted "à l'anglaise" and painted in sepia ink and watercolor. Its height is 21.3 cm and the leaf measures at the widest 13.1 cm. Here too we do not know the precise date of its realization, which we will however locate not befopre the end of the 1920s due to the number of cars present on rue Royale and to the general style. In all likelihood, this leaf, like the previous one, was produced for Mr. Norry in the 1920s, and mounted later.
Please click on the leaf to discover a detail of this fan... and correspondences on other fans.
Other Boscher fans can be found. Let us point out a very interesting patriotic one, belonging to a private French collection, which we show in our article "WW1 Allied Flags Fans", Fans, The Bulletin of the Fan Circle International, Summer 2014, Nr 98, p. 48-52.
We hope to have entertained and interested you in this little journey around a fan painter, with, as always in this wonderful subject of study, perspectives opening towards other fields. Naturally, if you have information concerning Ferdinand Jean Edouard Boscher, we would be very happy to learn about, and to share it with our visitors (especially if you have other fans by F. Boscher).
On the left, a watercolor by Boscher undoubtedly showing the interior of a "malouinière" (name given to the beautiful mansions built in the 18th century by the shipowners of St Malo, a town dear to our artist), with a gallant deploring that her hand screen does not hide that imperfectly love games...
Above right, a program cover for the Théâtre de la Renaissance - Paris (1925).
Above at the center, an advertisement for the perfumer Houbigant.
