Snuff Box (Tabatière) (1761–62): Art, History and Details

Snuff Box (Tabatière) (1761–62) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Francois Guillaume Tiron (French).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The pastoral scenes that decorate this box are typical of the style of François Boucher, a celebrated painter of the period whose works were popularly reproduced on decorative arts. Snuff boxes, used practically as containers for powdered tobacco, were often decorated with miniature reproductions of notable works. The miniature on the cover is inspired by Boucher’s The Galant Pastor (Le Pasteur Gallant) (1738) and that on the bottom by The Amusement of the Shepherd Girl (L’Amusement de la Bergère) (1700s).

Object facts

• Title: Snuff Box (Tabatière)
• Date: 1761–62
• Creator attribution: Francois Guillaume Tiron (French)
• Culture: France
• Type: Miscellaneous
• Technique: gold and enamel
• Dimensions: Overall: 2.9 x 4.2 cm (1 1/8 x 1 5/8 in.)
• Collection: Decorative Arts
• Department: Decorative Art and Design
• Accession number: 1958.126

A detail from the museum

François Boucher was a favorite of the French royal court of Louis XV and named first painter of the king in 1765.

Collection credit

Gift of Mrs. Edward B. Greene

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.