Venus Consoling Love (The Bath of Venus)

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Venus Consoling Love (The Bath of Venus): Francois Boucher

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Art Type: Oil Painting
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Francois Boucher Oil Painting - Venus Consoling Love (The Bath of Venus)

Keywords: Venus, Consoling, Love, Bath, Venus

Work Overview: Venus Consoling Love (The Bath of Venus)
Artist François Boucher
Year 1751
Medium oil on canvas
Dimensions 107 cm × 84.8 cm (42 in × 33.4 in)
Location National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Venus Consoling Love is a painting by François Boucher, from 1751.[1][2][3][4] The painting depicts a mythological scene, where Venus, the goddess of Love, depicted as a young, charming and supple young woman is impersonating the French Rococo's beauty ideals. She is about to disarm Cupid, by taking away his arrows, that he uses when shooting at people to make them fall in love.

"In Enlightenment France the dedicated search to define truth engendered a re–evaluation of the natural. The belief that it was right to follow nature, and that the pursuit of pleasure was natural, influenced the prevailing conception of the nude ...

Venus sits beside the pond with doves, the goddess symbol. The white doves at her feet, her complexion, the pearls in her hair are just as luxurious like the silk draperies that were wrapped around her, but now are lying on the ground. Boucher painted the artwork with soft pastel tones using a dim silvery light. The painting was made with high technical skill. The principal charm of Rococo art is its sensuality and seductivity.

The painting belonged to Mme de Pompadour, the French king's mistress, dislplayed at Château de Bellevue, who commissioned it, and it was Madame de Pompadour who allegedly posed for the painting. Artists liked to work for her not only for the prestige of working for the aristocracy, but also because she paid her bills regularly. It has even been suggested that Boucher's young wife was the young woman posing for the figure of Venus, but it is more a soft and appealing essence of feminine beauty, that appears in front of us in the figure of the Venus painted by the French artist Boucher.

In Enlightenment France the dedicated search to define truth engendered a re–evaluation of the natural. The belief that it was right to follow nature, and that the pursuit of pleasure was natural, influenced the prevailing conception of the nude. François Boucher, who became the first painter to Louis XV, fully explored his century's interest in the relationship between the rational and the sensual.

In The Bath of Venus, the mythological goddess has lost any allusions to classical history painting and is offered up to the viewer as an object of physical beauty. Venus, located in a lush garden setting, coyly attempts to restrain a pouting Cupid as two putti point to the scene in mocking disapproval. Boucher's success in communicating the charm and sensuality of the nude lies in his mastery of color and fluid brushstrokes. Venus is rendered in porcelain tones, delicately accented in pink, her body highlighted against luscious blue velvet and silk. The two white doves at her feet contrast a thick impasto surface with the transparent water and cool greens and blues of the foliage. The painting exemplifies the rococo love of asymmetric lines and sinuous curves, artfully arranged to seduce both the eye and the mind of the beholder.

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