Late 18th-Century Maryland Artist Lambert ? Bouche

.1799 Artist Lambert ? Bouche. Ann Ogle (Mrs. John Tayloe III) and daughters Rebecca and Henrietta. Maryland Historical Society.

When I worked at the Maryland Historical Society, one of the artists little was known about was a man named Bouche, who at the time had only one painting on display there. Since then, another painting by the same artist has been acquired. His name "Bouche" appears in an advertisement in the "Maryland Journal" for November 5, 1795, in which Bouche proposes a drawing school at his home on Harrison Street in Baltimore Town. A gentleman name Lambert Bouchu was taxed for property in Baltimore in 1800. His partner in the venture, M. de Valdenuit, had also worked with St. Memin, a portrait engraver who worked in Baltimore for a time. The art school that Bouche & de Valdenuit ran offered drawing & painting classes with flowers, landscape, & figures as subject. A Frenchwoman also offered embroidery instruction for students at the school. One of Bouche's portraits was of two sisters, Sally Scott & Anna Maria Murray, who were friends of John Hesselius' daughter. John Hesselius was an artist who also lived & worked in Baltimore.

1785 Artist Lambert ? Bouche. Mrs. Philip Barton Key. Maryland Historical Society..