Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00009623Fountain of Venus
About the 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 served initially as a preliminary design for a tapestry.
Inscriptions
Signed lower right: "F Boucher / 1756"
Provenance
Until 1934: Baron Edmond de Rothschild [1845-1934], Paris, by descent to his son, Maurice de Rothschild 1934-1940: Maurice de Rothschild [1881-1957], Paris, confiscated by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg 1940-: In possession of the Nazis Until 1974: Rothschild Family, to P. & D. Colnaghi 1974-1979: (P. & D. Colnaghi, London, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) 1979-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Exhibition history
Year in Review: 1979. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 13-March 9, 1980). America Collects Eighteenth-Century French Painting. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (organizer) (May 21-August 20, 2017).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- François Boucher (French, 1703–1770)
- Date
- 1756
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- 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.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- European Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- The Thomas L. Fawick Memorial Collection
- Accession no.
- 1979.55
More by François Boucher in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00009623
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