National Gallery of Art :: The Collection :: The Bath of Venus
  • Overview
  • Inscription
  • Provenance
  • Exhibition History
  • Bibliography

Overview

In Enlightenment France the dedicated search to define truth engendered a re–evaluation of the natural. The belief that it was right to follow nature, and that the pursuit of pleasure was natural, influenced the prevailing conception of the nude. François Boucher, who became the first painter to Louis XV, fully explored his century's interest in the relationship between the rational and the sensual.

In The Bath of Venus, the mythological goddess has lost any allusions to classical history painting and is offered up to the viewer as an object of physical beauty. Venus, located in a lush garden setting, coyly attempts to restrain a pouting Cupid as two putti point to the scene in mocking disapproval. Boucher's success in communicating the charm and sensuality of the nude lies in his mastery of color and fluid brushstrokes. Venus is rendered in porcelain tones, delicately accented in pink, her body highlighted against luscious blue velvet and silk. The two white doves at her feet contrast a thick impasto surface with the transparent water and cool greens and blues of the foliage. The painting exemplifies the rococo love of asymmetric lines and sinuous curves, artfully arranged to seduce both the eye and the mind of the beholder.

Inscription

lower left in black paint: F Boucher / 1751

Marks and Labels

null

Provenance

Painted for Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, marquise de Pompadour [1721-1764] and installed in the appartement des bains in the Château de Bellevue, outside Paris; removed c. 1757; recorded 1764 in the vestibule of the ground floor of the Hôtel d'Evreux, Pompador's Parisian residence; by inheritance to her brother, Abel François Poisson, marquis de Ménars et de Marigny [1727-1781], Château de Ménars, Paris; installed in the gallery of Marigny's residence, rue St. Thomas du Louvre, Paris, by 1777;[1] (his estate sale, at his residence by Basan and Joullain, Paris, 18 March-6 April 1782 [postponed from late February], no. 21); purchased by Jean Baptiste Pierre Le Brun [1748-1813], Paris and London.[2] Baron Alfred Charles de Rothschild [1842-1918], Halton House, near Wendover, Buckinghamshire, by 1884;[3] bequest to Grace Elvina Hinds Duggan Curzon, marchioness of Curzon [1879-1958], Kedleston Hall, Derby, Derbyshire; (her sale, American Art Association-Anderson Galleries, New York, 22 April 1932, no. 80); Chester Dale [1883-1962], New York; gift 1943 to NGA.

[1] The painting was recorded there in 1777, when the marquis had them cleaned by Hoogstael. The documents, in the Archives de la Ville in Paris, Fonds Marigny, NA 102, fol. 90 verso, were discovered by Alden Gordon, and his notes from them were sent with a letter to David Rust dated 15 March 1983, all in NGA curatorial files.

[2] Paul Matthews, of the Dulwich Picture Gallery, kindly brought to the Gallery's attention a Boucher Venus and Cupids that appeared in the 1785 sale of Noël Desenfans (d. 1807), a dealer who was one of Le Brun's business partners (sale, Christie's, London, May 11-14, 1785, 2nd day, no. 53; e-mail to Curatorial Records, May 6, 2004, NGA curatorial files). There is no description of the painting in the sale catalogue, so it is not possible to say with certainty that this was the Gallery's painting. The purchaser at the 1785 sale was recorded as "Dillon," who also purchased two other lots. Marijke Booth, of Christie's Archives Department, suggests that this could either be Charles Dillon-Lee, 12th viscount Dillon (1745-1813) or Edward Count Dillon (1751-1839), both collectors during this period (e-mail to Anne Halpern, August 9, 2007, NGA curatorial files).

[3] Alfred did not inherit the painting from his father, and the painting is not included in Alfred's 1884 catalogue, so he must have acquired it himself at a later date (e-mail from Michael Hall, curator to Edmund de Rothschild, to Anne Halpern, August 3, 2008, NGA curatorial files).

Exhibition History

1965
The Chester Dale Bequest, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1965, unnumbered checklist.
1973
François Boucher in North American Collections: One Hundred Drawings, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Art Institute of Chicago, 1973-1974, unnumbered brochure for Washington venue (shown only in Washington).

Bibliography

1880
Goncourt, Edmond de, and Jules de Goncourt. L'art du dix-huitième siècle. 2 vols. Paris, 1880: I:192.
1903
"Madame de Pompadour et les Arts." Gazette des Beaux-Arts. 3rd ser., vol. 62 (August 1903): 402
1903
Nolhac, Pierre de. "Quelques tableaux de Boucher de la Collection de M. le Baron Alfred de Rothschild (Londres)." Les Arts. 20 (August 1903): 2-4, repro. cover
1906
Michel, André. François Boucher. Paris, 1906: no. 305.
1907
Nolhac, Pierre de. François Boucher: premier peintre du roi. Paris, 1907: 47, 124, repro. opposite 124
1925
Nolhac, Pierre de. Boucher, premier peintre du roi. Paris, 1925: 95
1932
"$31,000 for Painting: Sales from Lady Curzon's Collection Total $93,672." The New York Sun. 23 April 1932:18
1932
"Boucher Painting Sold for $31,000." The New York Times. 23 April 1932: 34
1932
"Chester Dale Secures Important Boucher from Curzon Collection in American-Anderson Galleries' Sale." Art News, 30, no. 31 (30 April 1932): 5+
1932
Cortissoz, Royal. "François Boucher, Apropos of a Painting now in New York." The New York Herald Tribune (1 May 1932): section VII, 10, repro.
1932
Art News. 30, no. 32 (7 May 1932): repro. on cover
1932
Beaux-Arts 10 (May 1932): repro. p. 9
1939
Cordey, Jean. Inventaire des biens de Madame de Pompadour rédigé après don décès. Paris, 1939: no. 1230
1939
Horticq, Louis. La Peinture française XVIIIe siècle. Paris, 1939: repro. frontispiece
1942
French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 16, repro.
1943
Washington Times-Herald 18 July 1943:C-10
1944
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Masterpieces of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1944: 114, color repro.
1944
French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1944: 16, repro.
1953
French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1953: 19, repro.
1956
Einstein, Lewis. "Looking at French Eighteenth Century Pictures in Washington." Gazette des Beaux-Arts 6th ser., 67, no. 1048-1049 (May-June 1956): 227, repro. 223.
1956
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1956: 46, repro.
1959
Cooke, Hereward Lester. French Paintings of the 16th-18th Centuries in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1959 (Booklet Number Four in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.): 34, color repro.
1963
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 210, repro.
1965
Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Paintings & Sculpture of the French School in the Chester Dale Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 19, repro.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 17
1966
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:314, color repro.
1968
European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1968: 10, repro.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 38, repro.
1975
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: 334-5, no. 447, repro.
1976
Ananoff, Alexandre. "François Boucher et l'Amérique." L'Oeil 251 (June 1976): 22.
1976
Ananoff, Alexandre, with Daniel Wildenstein. François Boucher. 2 vols. Lausanne and Paris, 1976: 2:80-82, no. 377, repro.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 332, no. 443, color repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 57, repro.
1985
Norton, Thomas E. 100 Years of Collecting in America: the Story of Sotheby Parke Bernet. New York, 1984: 116
1986
François Boucher, 1703-1770. Exh. cat. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Detroit Institute of Arts; Grand Palais, Paris. New York, c. 1986: 256
1992
National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 170, repro.
1998
Fiero, Gloria K. The Humanistic Tradition: Faith, Reason and Power in the Early Modern World. New York, 1998, no. 26.7, repro.
2004
Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 250, no. 201, color repro.
2009
Conisbee, Philip, et al. French Paintings of the Fifteenth through the Eighteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2009: no. 3, 19-25, color repro.

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