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His more secret paintings were meant to ignite the senses of the wealthy and libertine elite who threw parties in the very private salons of sumptuous mansions.
The Orient made people fantasize and, in 1745, Boucher unveiled his painting «L’Odalisque Brune», a woman, apparently his wife, naked and lying on her stomach, her thighs spread, falsely surprised at the indiscreet presence of spec- tators. The painting exudes lust over pearls, in the intoxicating scrolls of scent burners to the softness of the sofa.The odalisque in his lascivious pose invites guilty pleasures in the hollow of his sheets.
This painting, unknown to the general public at the time, was much criticized by Diderot, who found it indecent and shameless. He even accused Boucher of prostituting his own wife, which did not prevent the painter from making three replicas of this work so vilified and so appreciated.
In period paintings, female figures were presented as mythological figures. Thus, Danae and the nymphs observed by a concupiscent satyr eagerly spying on the offered flesh introduced the theme of the voyeur for whom the painting was made. The loves of ancient gods were thus summoned to stage the omnipotence of human desire.
The romantic encounter is mentioned, suggested but never fully disclosed.
The kisses, caresses and intertwined bodies evoke the frenzy of the impulses of disheveled eroticism but are limited to banter, the exchange of languid sighs and the beginnings of a fiery french kiss.
The sensual load in Fragonard or Boudin becomes more unrestrained but, mas- ked by the sheets and their folds, without crossing the limits of decency. The violence of desire and the loss of virginity were represented in some paintings by symbols such as the egg, the broken jug, the burnt candle or the spilled milk.