Ursula Hoff Annual Lecture Ursula Hoff Annual Lecture: François Boucher, history painter Mark Ledbury, Power Professor, The University of Sydney For many, in the eighteenth century and after, Francois Boucher came to symbolize a malaise in French painting, an epoch where noble male ideals of history painting were abandoned in favour of the frivolous, the feminine, the decorative. But this is a skewed picture. This lecture seeks to reexamine Boucher’s career as a history painter, by exploring some overlooked or little known works by the painter, including the splendid pair in…