Paintings
Fountain of Venus
Permanent ExhibitionPaintingMythology & Allegory
Details
- Author / creator
- François Boucher (French, 1703–1770)
- Object type
- Painting
- Date or period
- 1756
- Dimensions summary
- Framed: 246 × 228.5 × 6.5 cm; Unframed: 233 × 215 cm
- Support
- Canvas
- Paint medium
- Oil
- Place of origin
- France
- Acquisition method
- Purchase
- Credit line
- Purchased with the Ashcombe City Council acquisitions budget, 1979
About this object
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 served initially as a preliminary design for a tapestry.
Materials and technique
Oil on canvas
Signature and marks
Signed lower right: "F Boucher / 1756"
