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Fountain of Venus
François Boucher1756
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States
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.
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Details
- Title: Fountain of Venus
- Creator: François Boucher (French, 1703-1770)
- Date Created: 1756
- Physical Dimensions: Framed: 246 x 228.5 x 6.5 cm (96 7/8 x 89 15/16 x 2 9/16 in.); Unframed: 233 x 215 cm (91 3/4 x 84 5/8 in.)
- Provenance: Baron Edmond de Rothschild [1845-1934], Paris, by descent to his son, Maurice de Rothschild, Maurice de Rothschild [1881-1957], Paris, confiscated by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg, In possession of the Nazis, Rothschild Family, to P. & D. Colnaghi, (P. & D. Colnaghi, London, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art), The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- Type: Painting
- Rights: CC0
- External Link: https://clevelandart.org/art/1979.55
- Medium: oil on canvas
- Inscriptions: Signed lower right: "F Boucher / 1756"
- Department: European Painting and Sculpture
- Culture: France, 18th century
- Credit Line: The Thomas L. Fawick Memorial Collection
- Collection: P - French 18th Century
- Accession Number: 1979.55
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