Fountain of Venus
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
unframed: 233 × 215 cm · framed: 246 × 228.5 × 6.5 cm
Classification
Painting
Department
European Painting and Sculpture
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
The Thomas L. Fawick Memorial Collection
Accession Number
1979.55
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
About this artwork
Lighthearted, erotic decorative schemes remained popular among the French aristocracy throughout the 1700s. In this painting, part of the playfulness comes from the way Boucher painted some of the figures in gray, as if made of stone, while the others are fully human. The artist toyed with the boundaries of painting and sculpture, as well as fiction and reality.The original purpose of this painting remains unclear. While it may have been exhibited as an independent work of art, it probably serve...