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Boucher when he was 38 years old and at the height of his popularity I have returned from my Grand Tour and am anxious to share some of my titillating finds, but first, I hope you will join with me in wishing François Boucher a Joyeux Anniversaire! The brilliant French painter was born in this day in 1703.  The son of a minor painter and talented lace designer, François was exposed to the Arts at a young age.  By the time he was twenty years old, he had served as an apprentice to the famed artist François Lemoyne, the engraver  Jean-François Cars, and won the Grand Prix de Rome (a much-coveted scholarship for artists). He was admitted to the Académie de peinture et de sculpture as a historical painter in 1731 and became a faculty member in 1734.  From that point, his career took off.    Using a pleasing palette in which he incorporated many shades of blue, Boucher was a master at depicting the whimsical, fantastical, and n...