The Past and Future of Boucher’s Four Seasons

In 1755, the renowned artist François Boucher embarked on a remarkable journey of creativity, producing an exquisite series of paintings titled The Four Seasons. At that time, agriculture in France followed natural seasonal rhythms—a cycle that humankind had honored for millennia since the dawn of crop cultivation. Autumn would herald a joyful harvest of grapes, apples, and pears; spring brought forth delicate greens, asparagus, and peas; and summer was celebrated for its plethora of berries, grains, and vegetables.

Fast forward to 2025, and while agricultural seasons persist, they often bypass our notice in an era dominated by global supply chains and advanced food preservation techniques. Today, the seasonal shifts in our diets are more readily signaled by the return of Starbucks’ beloved pumpkin spice lattes than by the sight of pumpkins ripening in the fields.

This autumn, as pumpkin spice season approaches, the Frick Collection presents a new site-specific installation by contemporary artist Flora Yukhnovich, which invigorates Boucher’s The Four Seasons with a contemporary Rococo flair. Nestled within the museum’s Cabinet Gallery, the installation consists of four expansive panels that envelop the room much like wallpaper, seamlessly incorporating architectural elements such as windows and doorframes. A vivid crimson ribbon, delicately traced along the top, runs around the perimeter of the panels, enhancing the installation’s intimate yet ornate nature.

Each panel symbolizes a distinct season, yet they share an interconnected visual language that fosters a sense of continuity—reminiscent of an endless scroll through social media or the loop of a digital video reel. Yukhnovich’s vibrant palette bursts forth with overwhelming color: earthy greens and omnipresent blues for the natural elements, interspersed with fantastical pops of pink, purple, and turquoise—hues that seem to leap from an animated Disney dreamscape rather than a pastoral reality. This whimsical color scheme magnifies the spectacle within the compact space, presenting a synthetic vibrancy that starkly contrasts the more muted tones of Boucher and Fragonard’s works displayed elsewhere in the collection. The result is as enchanting as it is overindulgent, akin to savoring an overly sweet dessert.

Amidst this riot of color, shapes reminiscent of flowers and foliage seem to bloom and swirl across a pastoral landscape, subtly suggesting a mountainous horizon. Yukhnovich’s dynamic brushwork imbues the mural with a sense of rhythm and movement, while juxtaposing thick patches of abstraction with elegant, flowing lines. Occasionally, these gestures crystallize into more recognizable forms, such as a deer couple in Autumn or a hare in Winter. Notably absent from Yukhnovich’s interpretation are any figures of humankind, a stark difference from Boucher’s richly populated seasonal narratives filled with romantic interactions. Perhaps this deliberate omission reflects a visionary perspective: landscapes from a future where nature, liberated from the rampant consumption characteristic of the Anthropocene, flourishes once more.

During my visit to the installation with a fellow artist, we marveled at a series of faint white horizontal lines that accented the upper sections of the Summer and Autumn panels. After some contemplation, we traced these lines back to the slender wooden muntins of the gallery’s east-facing windows. Our conjecture remains unverified, yet I appreciate the notion that even as Yukhnovich reinterprets Boucher’s essence through a lens of digital vibrancy, she honors the very abundance of nature visible just outside the collection’s walls, where the lush green trees and warm light abound.

Flora Yukhnovich: The Four Seasons is on display at The Frick Collection (1 East 70th Street, Upper East Side, Manhattan) until March 9, 2026, under the curation of Xavier F. Salomon.

Note from the Editor: Hyperallergic’s standard policy includes photographs captured by our reviewers to authentically depict their experience, though an exception was made due to venue restrictions on photography.