Le Pigeonnier, also known as Le Moulin de Charenton

Commonly referred to as The Moulin de Quiquengrogne in CharentonThis emblematic work from the Orléans collections takes a real place, known from ancient drawings, and reinterprets it in an idyllic way, much appreciated by 18th-century enthusiasts. In keeping with the tastes of his century, the artist, who had been the King's principal painter since 1765, placed a gallant scene in the doorway, echoed by the doves and crown, symbols of nuptials.

During his lifetime, Boucher enjoyed great success with his mythological and gallant scenes, often featuring idealized female nudes.

Boucher enjoyed accumulating a set of motifs that charmed him, as Georges Brunel pointed out: "This last painting is one of those in which the movement by which Boucher's imagination began to sterilize and freeze into formulas is most apparent. It shows all the piles of objects he loved: a dirt road curves around the right foreground, leading to a plank staircase that doesn't seem too solid; a small house apparently built on the half-ruined arches of an old bridge; a little further on, a dovecote stands on stilts; a woman in front of the house draws water from the river with a bucket attached to a rope...". The work is painted in an unreal blue-green range, which is visually contrasted by the red shirt of the young woman elegantly drawing water. The painter used the same contrasting technique in his painting The Washerwomen (1768, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art).