The Bath of Venus

The Bath of Venus shows the goddess of love half-risen from her bath in a shimmer of pearl-pink and dove-grey silk, attended by cupids, doves and the trophies of her cult, all set against the theatrical drapery and feigned architecture of François Boucher’s mature Rococo. Boucher, first painter to Louis XV and the favourite of Madame de Pompadour, was the supreme decorator of the eighteenth century, and no one handled the confectionery of nymphs, swags and porcelain flesh with more seductive fluency. Painted in 1751, at the height of his powers, the canvas condenses everything his age loved — myth made intimate, flesh made of rose-petal light, and luxury rendered with an ease that still feels effortless two and a half centuries on. The painting is held in the National Gallery of Art, Washington.