.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Related to the figure of Venus in Boucher's painting Venus consoling Cupid, signed and dated 1751, now in the National Gallery, Washington (Ananoff, 1976, op. cit., p. 79, fig. 1104). This picture and its pendant, The toilet of Venus now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (François Boucher, exhib. cat., New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and elsewhere, 1986-7, no. 60) were painted for the Marquise de Pompadour's salle de bain at the Château de Bellevue, the retreat she created for herself and King Louis XV.
However, the differences from the painting, the placement of the figure at the center of the sheet and the care given to the execution, could indicate that this drawing was made by Boucher as a work of art in its own right, arising out of an earlier study for the National Gallery's Venus, maybe the one in black chalk now in the Hermitage, Saint Petersburg (see A. Ananoff, 1976, op. cit., fig. 1109).
We thank Alastair Laing for his help in cataloguing this lot.
However, the differences from the painting, the placement of the figure at the center of the sheet and the care given to the execution, could indicate that this drawing was made by Boucher as a work of art in its own right, arising out of an earlier study for the National Gallery's Venus, maybe the one in black chalk now in the Hermitage, Saint Petersburg (see A. Ananoff, 1976, op. cit., fig. 1109).
We thank Alastair Laing for his help in cataloguing this lot.