Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse (French, 1824-1887)

Repeatedly throughout his career, Carrier-Belleuse returned to the motif of a proud, allegorical or mythological female figure in a contraposto pose, nude, or semi-dressed. This motif was particularly applicable to decorative sculptural programs in Second Empire France, and in his treatise Application de la figure humaine à la décoration et à l'ornamentation industrielles, there is a drawing by Carrier-Belleuse which is particularly relevant to the present group (see pl. 115 of the treatise). In his depiction of Venus, the artist has looked back to French Rococo painters, such as Boucher and Fragonard.