The Birth of Venus
Artist: Alexandre Cabanel (French, 1823–1889)
Original Dimensions: 41 3/4" x 71 7/8"
Location: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
About Artwork: (1875) "The first version of Cabanel's Birth of Venus (Musée d'Orsay, Paris) created a sensation at the Salon of 1863, which was dubbed the "Salon of the Venuses" owing to the number of alluring nudes on view. The Salon picture was purchased by Napoleon III for his personal collection. In 1875, New Yorker John Wolfe commissioned the present, slightly smaller, replica from Cabanel. The composition embodies ideals of academic art: mythological subject, graceful modeling, silky brushwork, and perfected form. This style was perennially popular with collectors, even as it was challenged by artists seeking a more personal interpretation of truth to nature, such as Courbet." - (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)

Panel content
Panel content