The Toilette of Venus1751
Venus reclines on a bank of silk and cushions while cupids attend to her hair and jewels. More about this work
About this work
Venus reclines on a bank of silk and cushions while cupids attend to her hair and jewels. Boucher, the favourite painter of Madame de Pompadour, made this canvas in 1751, and it is generally thought to have been painted for her château at Bellevue. The soft pinks and blues, the creamy flesh and the effortless arrangement of drapery sum up the Rococo ideal of painting as sheer pleasure for the eye.
Written by Ochre Editions.
How it was made
- Oil paint
- Pigment ground in a drying oil, usually linseed. It dries slowly, so painters could blend on the canvas, build up thin translucent glazes, and rework a picture over weeks. Canvas replaced wooden panels in the 1500s because it is lighter and can be rolled.
François Boucher
French, 1703–1770 · Born and died in Paris.
Boucher trained with François Lemoyne, won the Prix de Rome and spent several years in Italy before rising to become First Painter to Louis XV. Madame de Pompadour was his most important patron. He worked at every scale, from mythological canvases full of rosy nudes and cupids to designs for the Beauvais and Gobelins tapestry factories, porcelain and the opera. His light, decorative manner came to define the French Rococo.
Written by Ochre Editions.
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The Met has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- 20.155.9
- Credit
- Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Type
- Paintings
- Department
- European Paintings
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
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