19th c. Tapestry

Found in Montpellier, this early 19th-century tapestry leaves the crowd behind for just two figures, a courting couple settled under a tree at the edge of the water, a small dog at their feet and a town across the river. The scene is a pastoral, the old daydream of the countryside as a green and easy place where lovers had nothing to do but sit close in the shade. The taste came out of the 18th century, when painters like Boucher made shepherds and sweethearts fashionable and weavers carried the idea onto walls, the city romanticizing a country life it never actually lived. Sylvie hangs it where you come on it up close, small and intimate, a scene meant to be found rather than announced.