“The Toilette of Venus”
The elegant Rococo art of François Boucher.
“The Toilette of Venus” is an oil on canvas painting by the French Rococo artist, François Boucher, from 1751. This painting was commissioned by Madame de Pompadour, the official chief mistress of King Louis XV.
Pompadour commissioned Boucher for several paintings to decorate her country home, Château de Bellevue. This painting was made for her personal dressing room. Château de Bellevue was a small and private estate just southwest of Paris. It was a gift from Louis XV as a retreat, who had the home constructed for her. This painting was made with a companion piece, “The Bath of Venus”, now housed in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
In this painting, Boucher depicts Venus, the famed Goddess of love. She is lounging in her toilette with three cherubs, or putti, who are tending to her. Venus sits on an ornate couch, with luxurious turquoise curtains draping elegantly on either side of the canvas. Between the curtains, Boucher depicts a classical landscape against green trees and a blue sky.
Venus holds a white dove in her hand while another one stands near her feet. One cherub holds up strands of gray curls from the top of her head. A second holds a blue ribbon which is wrapped around the dove in Venus’s hands. The third cherub is on his belly, selecting pearls. In the bottom right, Boucher signs his name, just below a gold incense burner.
This painting exhibits many hallmarks of Rococo style art. The porcelain skin of Venus with rosy tones, the decadent fabrics, and the lavish pearls. The overall color palette is muted, another signature of the Rococo style. Rococo art was lighthearted, carefree, and playful. The scenes were either mythological as in this depiction of Venus or showed people participating in a frolicsome pastime.
Boucher was the favorite artist of Pompadour. Due to Pompadour’s influence, in 1765, Boucher became the court painter to King Louis XV and the court of Versailles. That same year, he also became the director of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture.
“The Toilette of Venus” is currently on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City in the United States.
For more on François Boucher, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
