.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
François Boucher's celebration of the female form found its perfect vehicle in mythological subjects. Venus provided one of Boucher's most frequently depicted mythological subjects in paintings, drawings and prints. The present example was the source for a print by Gilles Demarteau (1722-1776), the most important French printmaker working in Paris in the mid-18th Century. Demarteau specialized in the crayon manner which reproduced chalk drawings in color, and he made hundreds of prints after compositions by Boucher. In this composition Venus is depicted in a wooded landscape with an attendant and two putti who play with a swan. Boucher used the soft black chalk in varying ways to differentiate the textures from flesh and fabric to tree bark and foliage. This composition was repeated in another print by Gabriel Huquier (1695-1772) who etched it in the same direction and used it as the frontispiece of his publication, Troisiéme livre de sujets et pastorals par F. Boucher, peintre du Roy. Huquier's engravings after Boucher were part of a four volume set of Sujets et pastorals.
Venus bathing is also the subject of one of Boucher's finest paintings, painted for the Marquise de Pompadour in 1751 which is now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. As with many of these mythological subjects, the narrative, and even the sitter (in the case of the painting, it has been suggested that the woman is the Marquise de Pompadour) is less important that the overall exaltation of female beauty.
This drawing has an illustrious provenance, having once been in the collection of Jean-Claude Gaspard de Sireul (1713-1781), Boucher's most enthusiastic collector and patron during the artist's lifetime. Sireul's posthumous sale included over 200 drawings, 16 paintings and four pastels by Boucher. During the 19th Century Venus at her bath was owned by the brothers Edmond and Jules Goncourt brothers, important art critics and writers. Their twelve volume series, L'Art du dix huitième siècle (first published between 1856-1875) helped revive interest in French rococo art during the 19th Century and mentioned this drawing in that publication (Goncourt, op. cit., I, p. 279).
We are grateful to Laure Aline Demazure for confirming the attribution of this drawing on the basis of photographs and for her help in writing this entry. The work will be included in the Laing-Demazure catalogue raisonné currently in preparation.
Venus bathing is also the subject of one of Boucher's finest paintings, painted for the Marquise de Pompadour in 1751 which is now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. As with many of these mythological subjects, the narrative, and even the sitter (in the case of the painting, it has been suggested that the woman is the Marquise de Pompadour) is less important that the overall exaltation of female beauty.
This drawing has an illustrious provenance, having once been in the collection of Jean-Claude Gaspard de Sireul (1713-1781), Boucher's most enthusiastic collector and patron during the artist's lifetime. Sireul's posthumous sale included over 200 drawings, 16 paintings and four pastels by Boucher. During the 19th Century Venus at her bath was owned by the brothers Edmond and Jules Goncourt brothers, important art critics and writers. Their twelve volume series, L'Art du dix huitième siècle (first published between 1856-1875) helped revive interest in French rococo art during the 19th Century and mentioned this drawing in that publication (Goncourt, op. cit., I, p. 279).
We are grateful to Laure Aline Demazure for confirming the attribution of this drawing on the basis of photographs and for her help in writing this entry. The work will be included in the Laing-Demazure catalogue raisonné currently in preparation.