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Venus and Cupid (Main View)

François Boucher

The J. Paul Getty Museum

The J. Paul Getty Museum
Los Angeles, United States

"Voluptuousness was the essence and the soul of Boucher's art," wrote the Goncourt brothers, famous art critics of the mid-1800s. Intended to be framed and hung like a painting, Venus and Cupid typifies François Boucher's works both in its unselfconsciously erotic female nude and in its sensual use of the chalk medium. Until the 1700s, few artists had actively cultivated the powdery, floating qualities of chalks. Here the green pastel in the vegetation and the white chalk above it billow around Venus like a veil of smoke, complementing the soft, yielding fleshy bodies that Boucher created with a thick application of white chalk.

Throughout his long career, Boucher made two to three drawings a day, producing approximately ten thousand known works ranging from quick sketches to finished compositions like this one.

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  • Title: Venus and Cupid (Main View)
  • Creator: François Boucher
  • Date Created: about 1750–1752
  • Location Created: France
  • Physical Dimensions: 37.5 × 21.3 cm (14 3/4 × 8 3/8 in.)
  • Type: Drawing
  • External Link: Find out more about this object on the Museum website.
  • Medium: Black, white, red, blue, and green chalk
  • Terms of Use: Open Content
  • Number: 84.GB.20
  • Culture: French
  • Credit Line: The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
  • Creator Display Name: François Boucher (French, 1703 - 1770)
  • Classification: Drawings (Visual Works)
The J. Paul Getty Museum

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